Curry Hazouri Boyer and The HRO.

[thelakelander]

If you want to get out-of-towners, bring the tolls back to I-95 and plop them at the county lines. Seems to work for the NE. If this pension thing goes to referendum, I see it having a hard time passing with the general public. Most can't relate to the situation and there's nothing "sexy" about it (like what was included in the BJP) to sell.

[Tacachale]

The sales tax isn't an extension, it really is a new tax, but it's an innovative way to deal with a difficult problem. It will be a tough sell but many worthwhile things are. One of the major benefits it has is that future mayors can't mess with it (or just refuse to deal with it) like they can with the millage rate, which is a major reason we're in the situation we're in now.

But back to the point of the thread, at this point it will be better to revisit the HRO issue after the pension and the national election. Fortunately it sounds like most recognize that a referendum on the HRO would be the worst possible outcome for the city.

[vicupstate]

If you want to get out-of-towners, bring the tolls back to I-95 and plop them at the county lines. Seems to work for the NE. If this pension thing goes to referendum, I see it having a hard time passing with the general public. Most can't relate to the situation and there's nothing "sexy" about it (like what was included in the BJP) to sell.

I agree. It will be an extremely hard sell, and if not successful will have cost political capital and a loss of time in addressing the issue, which only gets worse with time.

[vicupstate]

Question: If the sales tax is extended to pay for pensions, does it expire, as the BJP sales tax eventually will, or is this a permanent increase?
 

[Tacachale]

Question: If the sales tax is extended to pay for pensions, does it expire, as the BJP sales tax eventually will, or is this a permanent increase?

It's a topic for another thread, but it would be another 30 year tax. 2030-2060.

[Tacachale]

Question: If the sales tax is extended to pay for pensions, does it expire, as the BJP sales tax eventually will, or is this a permanent increase?

It's a topic for another thread, but it would be another 30 year tax. 2030-2060.

The mayor deserves no support for any of his fixes until he supports the HRO.  There is no reason to aid and empower this mayor for using these types of tactics.  If the citizens have to wait, then so should he, in my opinion.

He already says he opposes the HRO. Unless you want nothing to get done for four years, or eight, that's a pretty self-defeating tactic.

[Tacachale]

Question: If the sales tax is extended to pay for pensions, does it expire, as the BJP sales tax eventually will, or is this a permanent increase?

It's a topic for another thread, but it would be another 30 year tax. 2030-2060.

The mayor deserves no support for any of his fixes until he supports the HRO.  There is no reason to aid and empower this mayor for using these types of tactics.  If the citizens have to wait, then so should he, in my opinion.

He already says he opposes the HRO. Unless you want nothing to get done for four years, or eight, that's a pretty self-defeating tactic.

It is on the part of the Mayor.

He also needs the support of the citizens, who also have the option of not caring what the Mayor wants, tacachale.

If this is how he wants to play politics, there is no reason to enable him,

Congress says the same thing about Obama.

[Charles Hunter]

Unless Curry's read of the electorate is correct, and the majority of Jax voters either do not care about, or are hostile, to LGBT issues. Then, there are no horses to trade. The only carrot would be if the Chamber were to elevate amending the HRO to a bargaining chip.

[Charles Hunter]

Interesting, Stephen.
Wonder where the anti-LGBT crowd falls on the issue of extending the sales tax for cops and firefighters pensions?

[Charles Hunter]

That's my thought, so Curry siding with them on the HRO, doesn't gain their votes for the pension. And it could lose him Progressive votes on the pension tax. Strange calculus.

[mvp]

I can't find the live meeting stream on TV or online in the usual places...

[dv8]

online look under Archived Meetings at http://www.coj.net/city-council/current-issues/equal-rights-legislation.aspx#Meetings.  altho the one for Feb 18 has not appeared yet.

this city should implode on it's own prayer cloud, taking the squirrelly cowards on the council out too.  jeezum crow, it's 2016 everywhere else. 

[Josh]

I would argue that is the mayor's only face.

[Tacachale]

The Folio piece is interesting in light of their failure to cover Alvin Brown's backdoor dealings that thwarted the original HRO three years ago. That was a major failure on their part and that of most of the local media. This quote especially...

But what good is rallying the community if the establishment is willing to go to any lengths to oppose HRO expansion? How can you expect people to keep showing up for community conversation circuses and public comment debacles if the process is rigged against them by a mayor who will resort to any means necessary to get what he wants, which apparently is no expansion of HRO while he is in office?

... makes their previous failure all the more glaring.

The piece also misses a second major piece of background information: the threat of the referendum being pushed by the anti-HRO crowd and which would certainly be the outcome of any HRO bill passed at the moment. That's the real story here, and Folio has consistently missed that, too.

[Local Artist]

Ax Handle Saturday? My god, Jacksonville!