Posts tagged Suzy Ageton

You wouldn’t think a sleepy little burg like Boulder would routinely spend $200 million-plus annually to fund its endeavors, but that’s the long and the short of our city budget. Each year the city manager presents something resembling a “rationale” for council’s consideration, which helps to subtly alter portions of the budget in accord with Boulder’s political winds. For instance, Boulder’s economic vitality budget increased by $200k this past year in spite of the fact that many questioned the efficacy of giving away public tax dollars as “incentive” money to companies like IBM or Ball Aerospace. (To be fair, a chocolate factory, a music venue and other diverse businesses also benefitted this year.)

During a budget crunch, with the City waving if not wielding its budget axe at all departments, you’d think the ‘economic vitality’ gift horse would be sent to its stall. Maybe, but not with people like Ken Wilson on council, who has championed the ‘vitality’ program at every opportunity, generally by offering some factor by which the city benefits as gospel truth. Depending on whom Wilson addresses and on what day of the week, the benefits to the city could equal an “8-to-1″ return, a “15-to-1 return” or even a “20-to-1″ return on investment. The spread in these figures tells you all you need to know about them — that they are, in essence, figments of Wilson’s imagination. For instance, although the city has given money to IBM to help retain jobs — and Wilson campaigned on the point that those jobs would have gone to Virginia if the city didn’t contribute — it’s still a fact that IBM reduced its total workforce in Boulder over the past several years.

They may have kept a division here that would have gone to one of its other plants in another state; however, that action probably had about zero to do with the money the city gave them, which might pay the annual bonus of the person filing the necessary application for the dough, plus a little left over for Christmas party entertainment (Suzy Ageton in naughty-Santa lingerie jumping out of a cake?) Just the same, people like Wilson make this type of weird little governmental expenditure seem perfectly normal, even though the effect he pronounced was in essence a pile of horse hockey — with Boulder still experiencing more downsizing than upsizing regards IBM’s operations.
Recently, City Manager Jane Brautigam hauled out a (surprise, surprise) new set of analyses for the insane 2011 budget decisions the City will invariably seek to approve this year. Hardly anyone ever looks at this material, and I don’t want to cause anyone to reach for their air-sickness bag by quoting it; however, a smattering to give you the birds-eye view of how it works may be found athttp://www.bouldercolorado.gov/files/Finance/Budget/Priority-based_Budgeting/Result_Definitions_Summary.pdf .

This document says, for instance, that :”If the City of Boulder…fosters regional and public/private collaboration with key institutions and organizations that contribute to economic sustainability AND encourages sustainable development supported by reliable and affordable city services AND invests in primary economic generators and businesses” … “THEN it will have provided/achieved a (an)…ECONOMICALLY VITAL COMMUNITY.” I’ve printed this for you here so no one has to speculate how brain-dead the whole process actually is.

It could have been summarized as “good government means giving away tax dollars to those who need it the least” — instead, by a fortuitous summation of idiot logic and hyper-rational thinking, giving tax dollars away to big businesses equals an ‘ECONOMICALLY VITAL COMMUNITY.” People might sit at home asking themselves whose brain tissue splattered an Iphone to make this bit of power-point pseudo-science something that would actually be submitted to and then gain the approval of our Boulder city council. No need to guess…we have staffers paid hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to come up with something, anything, that maybe could fool a moron into thinking the economic vitality program is something Boulder desperately needs, when the fact is, it’s simply a corrupt method for people like Ken Wilson to pander to their campaign-contributing friends in the business community — all of whom JUST LOVE the economic vitality program, not to mention Wilson, who gets treated like someone’s adorable puppy if he ever happens to visit with IBM or Ball or the Chamber of Commerce, another driving political force behind the program.

New lies to maintain the same old budget priority, which ignores real needs, such as solving the issues related to the increasing numbers of homeless on Boulder’s streets, many of whom survive only on food stamps and whatever Ken Wilson charmingly tosses out of his car window when he pulls up at a traffic light to face one of those less-fed constituents. (Wouldn’t it be fun, as a prank, to wait for Ken holding a cardboard sign that reads “thank you for climbing over the backs of the least fortunate among us on your way up the political ladder.”)
By the way, as a footnote, when you hear a city council speaker (such as a scantily clad Seth Brigham) throw the term “fascist” around when talking about the city council, and think such protest ill-informed, guess again. Fascism exists when the interests of corporations and governments merge; and although Boulder’s economic vitality program may be only a slight example, it’s ‘microphone diddlers’ like Ken Wilson who lead us — in plain truth — down that path.
(Watch for more on city spending in future Rob Smoke articles.)

Rob Smoke is a former Commissioner of  Human Relations for the City of Boulder.

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