City Council prepares to Halt Mobility Fee

[JeffreyS]

That's funny.

[dougskiles]

Upside and downside to every event.  The upside for them is that they got their moratorium.  The downside for them is that now we have a few more eyes on the issue and several council members on record stating that they will be watching to see if it really works.  We have the opportunity to present real statistics over the course of the year - and back up what we have been saying.

There are two issues at hand:

1. Does a fee moratorium stimulate economic growth?  That will be relatively simple to track.
2. What is the true cost of suburban development?  This will be a little more complicated, but with cooperation from various city departments, we should be able to provide the data.  To be truly effective, it will take an agreement up front from the policy makers that our methodology is unbiased.

My goal is that we will no longer have to point to other places to support our logic.  We will have the cold hard numbers from right in here in our backyard to make our case.

If there are any financial analysts out there who want to help with these studies, please email me.

[JeffreyS]

Yes but I am sure if a Wendy's is built they will claim it is the moratorium not that a company thinks it can sell burgers that made it happen. So we will need to really be on our toes.

[jcjohnpaint]

Yeah if I wasn't laughing the Wendys bit really almost made spit my coffee up.  How shortsighted are council are! 

[Kay]

Upside and downside to every event.  The upside for them is that they got their moratorium.  The downside for them is that now we have a few more eyes on the issue and several council members on record stating that they will be watching to see if it really works.  We have the opportunity to present real statistics over the course of the year - and back up what we have been saying.

There are two issues at hand:

1. Does a fee moratorium stimulate economic growth?  That will be relatively simple to track.
2. What is the true cost of suburban development?  This will be a little more complicated, but with cooperation from various city departments, we should be able to provide the data.  To be truly effective, it will take an agreement up front from the policy makers that our methodology is unbiased.

My goal is that we will no longer have to point to other places to support our logic.  We will have the cold hard numbers from right in here in our backyard to make our case.

If there are any financial analysts out there who want to help with these studies, please email me.

Doug:  Your approach is the way to proceed IMO.  Hart's argument is simple to understand and what many folks believe.  He laid out clearly what we're up against and need to factually refute. 

[thelakelander]

^This should be pretty easy to track and refute the tax revenue argument Curtis Hart makes.  We might as well start now and hit people over the head repeatedly with the data over the next year because the group who bambozzled council has had a direct conduit into the ears of city hall for years.

[thelakelander]

Brown just said he supports the moratorium on the radio.  Said he talked to Dan Davis and Curtis Hart.

[JeffreyS]

The mayor on the radio just said construction is down he mentioned home building specifically and said he supports the mobility fee to address it.  He wants that business back.  Wow they all think that sprawlville glory days are coming back.

[thelakelander]

There is an economic re-education process we're going to have to take our leaders and public officials through.  Although they hold elected positions, many of the impactful economic decisions aren't topics most of those individuals have professional experience in dealing with.  They say the squeaky wheel gets the oil and in this case the development community has been squeaking for years.  Its all good.  I think we're all up to the challenge and will introduce a little technology into this Jacksonville discussion.  There's a ton of data supporting the issues we've addressed and poking holes in the builder's tired old arguments.  The challenge will be breaking the data down in a manner to where the general population can easily decipher the information.  JTA found out what a force we could be when they rolled out with that initial BRT plan.  It's time to apply that pressure to others with just as much force.

[jcjohnpaint]

First off our bubble was not real. Building is down because we DON'T NEED IT!  Yeah at this point it is physical revolution or education and I take the education.  When they know the facts hopefully they will make more informed decisions. 

[John P]

There is an economic re-education process we're going to have to take our leaders and public officials through.  Although they hold elected positions, many of the impactful economic decisions aren't topics most of those individuals have professional experience in dealing with.  They say the squeaky wheel gets the oil and in this case the development community has been squeaking for years.  Its all good.  I think we're all up to the challenge and will introduce a little technology into this Jacksonville discussion.  There's a ton of data supporting the issues we've addressed and poking holes in the builder's tired old arguments.  The challenge will be breaking the data down in a manner to where the general population can easily decipher the information.  JTA found out what a force we could be when they rolled out with that initial BRT plan.  It's time to apply that pressure to others with just as much force.

This is right. The squeeky wheels get the grease so until smart policy minds are in the same social circles, dinner parties, and have the same access as sprawling developers they will always get priority.

[Ocklawaha]

First off our bubble was not real. Building is down because we DON'T NEED IT!  Yeah at this point it is physical revolution or education and I take the education.  When they know the facts hopefully they will make more informed decisions.

Nice that you brought this up John, what the general public does NOT understand is the fact that funding for education, roads, health, ports, etc. All come from different agencies both federal and state. For example even if the Port got $20 Billion dollars, not a cent of that money could legally be used for schools. If the schools got it, not a cent could be used at the port. Government grants to transportation, education, welfare, and such must follow very strict and rigid guidelines, step out of those and you'll be paying uncle Sam back for a century.

This is why the recent quote Mike Blaylock recently made was misleading at best and complete propaganda at worse. Blaylock said something like, "Streetcars could work here, but we really need money for the port, the port is much more important." The Times-Union jumped on this and tossed a bomb at the streetcar plan based largely on Ballcock's disinformation. Blaylock knows good and well that streetcar money and port money come from different sources, and having one but not the other wouldn't make a bit of sense in the federal process.

When I was a city councilman in Oklahoma, I wrote over a million dollars worth of grants for infrastructure improvements. A good example is our road grants, which were to cover paving for several hard packed gravel roads. The grants were for 2 inch asphalt overlay (yes that's pretty light for a road) but the bottom line is it was for 2", not 1.5" or 3" inches, we had to follow the letter of the grant. When we were done paving access to a couple of new housing additions we hadn't used all of the money, i called the state and begged that we be able to use the surplus to lay chip and seal pavement over several more farm roads. We got permission provided the county would sign off on the project and we followed the letter of our grant modification.

When our projects were complete not only did the state demand to see the 'books', the Northwest Oklahoma Development Authority wanted a physical inspection AND photographs. Using this money any other way would have resulted in fines to our city and the chance of jail time for its councilmen.

OCKLAWAHA

[Bridges]

^This should be pretty easy to track and refute the tax revenue argument Curtis Hart makes.  We might as well start now and hit people over the head repeatedly with the data over the next year because the group who bambozzled council has had a direct conduit into the ears of city hall for years.

Bingo.  We don't even have to wait for the new data on projects.  A good place to start would be past projects that are net loses.  Right now, it's easy for them (developers) to control the narrative of "jobs" and "development".

Another thing we will have to battle is that no one has defined what a successful developmental period under the moratorium would look like.  So, if we don't get the word out about the true costs, then they can pick any project and hold it up as an example...even a Wendy's.

If you look at the comments on the FTU article, there are a lot of people upset about this. 

[thelakelander]

Yes.  I'm sure they knew this would never fly easily with the public, which is why it was done the way it was.   Even the FTU didn't have a single article about this issue until two days after it was approved by council.

[dougskiles]

A good friend shared his motto with me at breakfast this morning.  "Everything works out for the good in the end - and if things aren't good right now, then we are not at the end."

Very appropriate for this issue.  We are nowhere close to the end.  I am more excited than ever about the opportunity to educate our community (and ourselves) about the true cost of an unsustainable economy and development.