It is high time we started seriously looking at what Jerry Abramson has done to our City. Many people throughout the community have worked hard, and continue to do so, to make it a better place for us all. To see what has happened with our great City is a mockery of what we were promised and what we can achieve.
Take the most recent financial crisis we face. Abramson now says we will be $20 million short on our budget and this will require layoffs or "furloughs", another name for temporary staggered layoffs, to balance it. At the same time he just force fed a package to his Metro Council rubberstamps to give the Cordish Group $36 million dollars for a Center City project that does not even have to be complete for up to 13 years.
We all understand there has been a financial decline Nationally, and it will affect us locally to a degree, but to continue spending money we do not have for money we will not get, based on previous history like the Cordish Group, we must start asking the tough questions and get involved.
Anyone see the problem with this besides me?
According to Abramson we need the Center City project to become a first class city yet by all public accounts Cordish has done nothing to aid us in this venture other than getting free money from the City and the State. There is enough negative stuff on Cordish to discount anything they say they will do. Louisville News and Politics: CENTER CITY: A WASTE OF FUNDS .
Not to mention the good paying jobs that have hemorrhaged from our City in favor of low paying service economy jobs Abramson favors.
Take 4th street live for example. According to thevillevoice story on the subject Things We Don’t Know About 4th Street Live#more-1896 they have NEVER paid ONE DIME to the City in lieu of the contract they agreed to. So, according to Cordish accountants 4th street live has not made a penny in profit yet they continue to brag about it being a huge success. For who? Certainly not us.
This is pathetic and one more reason Abramson and cronies prove they live in their own field of dreams and uses us as pawns and a bank to make it happen.
Our reality is simple.
While we continue to spoon feed Cordish group, and other Abramson projects, our money for no benefit our City continues to fall short of its financial obligations to we the taxpayers. Abramson has done an effective job in one way only.
He has turned our once proud blue collar community that provided living wage jobs for families into a low wage service economy structure that will continue to lose money in taxes. Our jobs keep leaving and we do not replace them with anything substantial.
Unemployment is at 6.5% and rising and Abramson has this quote in his letter to staff:
"Because personnel costs are two-thirds of our budget, we must consider many of the options that cities across America are facing – including employee layoffs and/or unpaid furloughs."
Wages have gone down dramatically for the majority of us and the Abramson machine complete with his rubberstamp majority on the Council, (yep Bob Henderson and Rick "flip flop" Blackwell this includes you), are continuing to give money away to out of state investors for no return on our investment and at the expense of government services.
Adding to layoffs for an empty promise by Cordish is one more example of faulty leadership. It makes you wonder just how many layoffs we could avoid by doing the right and responsible thing with OUR money.
It is a pathetic example of power gone amuk as I have alluded to in previous articles.
Abramson started on his trips to New York a few years ago and some of us know why and what he really does when there ;-). If he wants to be like New York then he should resign immediately and move there. Take the Rubberstamps with him.
It is time to rebuild our City in our image. One that we all can be proud of and offer opportunity to our families and neighbors.
Not the one Abramson buys recognition for at our expense.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
5 comments:
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"King" Jerry likes to spend millions on pet projects while talking about budget short falls. I am less concerned about his "city" projects as I am about what happening out in the county which sees little positive economic investment. Much of his city projects have been nothing more than a monatary sink hole. All the same, how can he justify wasting the public's money on his schemes during a time like this?
ReplyDeleteI am still happy that occupational tax hike was voted down....lol. Giving away tax money to support entertainment,retail and bar establishments for his Cordish chosen is such a waste. People like Jerry are ruining this country. Look at Wall Street and Fannie/Freddie. Criminal liberals giving away money for the undeserved and scamming us financially in all ways. They need to go further than NYC on their way out the door.
ReplyDeleteDon't send Abramson to NYC because he would end up polluting that place with more of his foul smelling rhetoric. Abramson has did little or nothing for this community over the past 30 years. Its been a cult of personality somewhat like what Chairman Mao would have enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteThe reason Abramson is still in there is because of the complicity of the Courier-Journal, WAVE 3, WLKY, WHAS, etc. The Metro Council has been just as bad for the community. Its the people in the Council, city government, etc that have major conflicts of interest and corruption issues.
Bob Henderson should have been ousted this election cycle but Norman Pepper and Jennifer Wood ended up saving the day for him. Rick Blackwell, one of Jerry Abramsons rubber stamps is another one that should go. The same goes for MaDonna Flood and her husband.
The West End isn't exactly served by Councilmen and women who are doing much of anything except going along with Abramson for table scraps. Its amazing that these people don't ever stand up to Abramson especially since the Western and Southern ends of the city are among the worst performing districts economically and poverty wise. Yet, the West End leadership consisting of Wooldridge, Bryant Hamilton, etc have did little to stand up to the plans of Abramson. They just follow along willfully.
It is very interesting to watch the proceedings of the Metro Council on the TV channel and to hear the exhortations of Robert White and King Jerry to buckle your seatbelts and watch for bicyclists. While this driver does that and many others as well, thats all they have to contribute.
Why is it that our economy here as well as nationally shot. Its a basketcase and many of the employers in this community are basketcases as well. There is no logical reason for this sort of ineptitude and dereliction of duty by this mayor and his staff.
To listen to his mouthpiece Chad Carlton, one would think that everything in Louisville is all rosy and well. Meanwhile, people are losing jobs, incomes, and their homes. Yet the Abramson regime for the past 5 years has did little to improve the economy and job market here. It would be a much better situation if the people losing jobs were able to find jobs paying about the same or in some cases more. But instead, many of them are going from higher wages to low wages that are not enough to sustain house payments, insurance benefits, or anything else.
Its time for Louisvillians to start turning the heat up on these people and start asking why these people are allowed to get away with this sort of nonsense. A corrupt system indeed with the rubber stamps and their henchmen. The IPL is a grand part of this due to the bullying methods used to require conformance. I believe its time for all here to take these people to the cleaners and start cleaning up and building back this city economically and to create the type of jobs that we as citizens need and want as well as an economy that provides for all not just the few clients of Mr. Abramson on the East Side.
Furthermore, I believe that citizens of this city have been abused by a system that betrays their trust in their elected leaders. Which has been propped up by the conventional media powers that be. Its time to let them know that they no longer hold a monopoly on the media. These various blogs serve a great purpose to inform and educate the citizenry and more are needed for every area of the city to let locals know what is going on.
You're telling me that Center City was needed when we have a problem keeping 4th Street Live to capacity. I was there last Friday night at 8 pm and it was dead. Laughable to say the least. Yet Jim King as Metro Council president and all of the Democrats voted for this boondoggle and a waste of taxpayer funds. A total disaster to say the least and a totally misguided approach to create some low wage service jobs instead of technical, professional, and advanced manufacturing positions. What a misguided policy to believe that this city will sustain itself on 7.50 hr jobs when at least 12 to 20 dollar an hour jobs are needed. Its another recipe for failure cooked up by the Spinmeister at 527 West Jefferson. Who has spinned and spinned and now is out of yarn. A abject failure this current regime has been.
I am amazed at how quickly people turn on public servants when things get a little down. When Mayor Abramson retires, you'll wish you had him back.
ReplyDeleteAbramson is a political patronage artist, not a public servant. If he had any scruples, he would have abandoned the position years ago after his second herm ending in the 90s. That would have been real courage and real public service. What he has done so far has been a travesty. A declining city, a horrid job market, losing jobs. small businesses closing.
ReplyDeleteIts been like that for years while other cities in our region are growing. Louisville loses business, jobs, money, and prestige. Whats amazing is that so many people still support someone who has pretty much let everything run down around him. Its an embarassment and if you read the facts on economics, etc you will figure it out too in time