Just Another Dog and Pony Show with Austin's new tax subsidies ordinance

Giving away your tax money to private corporations got a lot easier recently when the Austin City Council unanimously passed a hollow economic incentive ordinance.  Dismissing the concerns of 123,000 Austin citizens who voted to stop the Domain Mall tax subsidies last year, the Mayor and City Council passed an ordinance which requires no neutral oversight, no third-party review, and no independent analysis when doling out your hard-earned tax dollars.

Check and balance?  “No, thanks! Trust city staff to give away your tax money.  We don’t need no stinkin’ oversight!” 

Brian Rodgers, who led the last year's fight on the Domain and a founder ChangeAustin.org said, "The ordinance purged the idea of a neutral third-party independent review. One city hall insider told me, ‘Chamber and staff hated the 3^rd party cost/benefit. It gave them heartburn, so there won’t be any 3^rd party analysis.’” Heartburn?  Give them Maalox. It saves the taxpayer a mountain of grief.

Another recipe for disaster?  City council refused a third-party analysis last year and blundered into a $2.3 billion wood-burning biomass electricity plant contract over 20 years.   Citizens were told, “There is no time for outside review. Equipment prices are going up at the end of the month. We have to hurry.”  Hurry, hurry, hurry, sale ends today!  Of course, that month was August 2008, and prices had already begun crashing down, turning an already bad idea into fiscal folly, a deal cooked inside City Hall with no third-party review.

Rodgers served on the committee to develop the ordinance, along with members of the Chamber of Commerce, a UT Professor, and a couple of members of Austin Interfaith.  Rodgers and Austin Interfaith decided not to support the new ordinance, and Professor Michael Oden, who had put forth five recommended best practices for incentive deals, had little good to say about it.  Perhaps most surprising was watching Council Members Bill Spelman and Laura Morrison shed any semblance of populism or fiscal responsibility as they lined up behind the Chamber.

Clearly, City Hall wants full and pre-emptive control of answers to any cost/benefit analysis, and to retain the ability to spend the immense tax resources freely as it alone sees fit.

This is the illusion of democracy at City Hall.  All else is window dressing.  Revolt anyone?

Linda Curtis is a longtime Austin activist and, is a co-founder of ChangeAustin.org.

This article was originally published on Austinpost.org

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