Villaraigosa Wants To GIVE Protesters YOUR Property

I'm as sympathetic to the Occupy L.A. protestors as the next guy. But that does not include my wanting to give them my hard-earned money.

Villaraigosa, however, plans to give them your money and mine by "leasing" them 10,000 square feet of office space that belongs to you and me for just $1 per year. One dollar per year?! Hey, Mr. Mayor, I'll pay ten times that amount for 10,000 square feet.

Read about the latest taxpayer ripoff in the L.A. Times.

Hey, you think any of the occupiers even knows that City Hall provides hundreds of millions of dollars per year of welfare for the rich? L.A. is "ground zero" for crony capitalism. And guess who pays for it? You and I, friend.  You and I.

POST-SCRIPT:
City Hall's hypocrisy is pretending to support the "Occupy Wall Street" movement is creepy and breath-taking.  Just six days ago, these same politicians passed a tax break, not for the working people of Los Angeles, but for MUTUAL FUNDS!

Villaraigosa Is Plagiarizing My Platform

Did someone at City Hall just discover my old platform?  First, Villaraigosa and the rest of the Spring Street Gang "realize" that the City's business income tax hurts employment.  Well, repealing that tax in its entirety was Plank No. 3 of my platform:

3. Taxes. Make hiring more police the No new taxes or bonds. Repeal L.A.’s business income tax. Stop imposing hidden, illegal taxes through excessive DWP and trash fees. End “welfare for the rich:” no more subsidies for developers, hotel owners or anyone else but the poor. Institute taxpayer rebates: the City should spend only what is necessary, and return the balance to taxpayers.

Now, Villaraigosa has started copying another of my planks. He just announced that, rather than having one giant park downtown, it makes more sense to have little parks in neighborhoods across the city that people can walk to:  so-called "pocket parks."  Yours truly, of course, advocated exactly that years ago. That was in Plank No. 5 of my platform:

5. Population Density. Stop increasing the population density of L.A. Create, subject to budget constraints and over the course of time, “pocket parks” in every neighborhood.

Don't take my word for it. You can still find signs of my platform online at the websites of third parties.

Hey, you think Villaraigosa will start advocating Plank No. 1, the repeal Special Order 40? Yeah, me, neither.

Nor do I think City Hall will actually implement my policy to benefit the public at large. Rather, Villaraigosa's and the City Council's "selective" repeal of the business income tax for the politically connected few (e.g., mutual funds), while forcing the rest of the city's employers to struggle under the burden, is less about creating jobs and more about rewarding his patrons.

Anyhow, I'm glad City Hall is adopting my policies -- or at least paying lip-service to same. But hey, how about giving some credit where credit is due, y'all? 

Do NOT Let Villaraigosa Put $800 Million Spending Orgy On Taxpayers' Credit Card

Villaraigosa apparently isn't content squandering the billions entrusted to him annually. Now he wants to spend another $800 million on top of that, and stick the City's taxpayers with the tab, to be paid off in the future.

For what? Ostensibly, road repairs. Yeah, right.  More like to lavish money on his union puppet-masters and artificially create the illusion of a burst of employment in a dying city.

Read all about it in David Zahniser's latest article.

Given how oblivious the voters of Los Angeles are, he will presumably get away with this. The money will be wasted, the roads will continue to crumble, but the debt will linger for decades.

Lawsuit Seeks Retroactive Raises For City Employees

According to a lawsuit filed by the union representing attorneys who work for the City, Villaraigosa and the City Council broke their written promise to refrain from laying off employees.

The consideration for that promise was an agreement by employees to forego raises. The remedy they seek, therefore, is retroactive raises.

Nice work, Mr. Mayor.  Read all about it at CourthouseNews.com.

Why Didn't I Think Of That? Oh Yeah, I Did!

Villaraigosa has come up with a brilliant idea for encouraging employers to move into Los Angeles:  cut the extra tax burden that the City imposes on top of federal and state taxes.

Hey, why didn't I think of that when I was running for Mayor? Oh, you're right: I did. And yet, the local media did not deem my campaign worthy of coverage until election night.

Alas, this is too little, too late. You can't simply cherry-pick particular companies for subsidies or tax breaks. You need to eliminate L.A.'s extra taxes across the board, for all employers.

Drinking While Working For The City Of L.A.