Posts Tagged Susan Goldberg
‘Collaboration’… The Aim, Not Result
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Media on February 2, 2010
February 2, 2010… Let me get this straight. The Cleveland Foundation is now the target of The Plain Dealer? You got to be kidding me.
The Sunday assault on the Cleveland Foundation decision to not give the Fund for Our Economic Future much new money suggests to me that the PD’s leadership doesn’t quite know what it is doing. In a front-page article and some blunderbuss from Brent Larkin, the PD slammed an institution that it has never had a bad word for in the past.
Ease into it, why don’t ya.
The “past” is the past at the PD these days and sometimes now that’s very good. Not always, however. Sometimes it gets overplayed. The paper is jumping on things. And jumping pretty hard.
The PD leadership – Terry Egger and Susan Goldberg – don’t know the community. And apparently they’re not eager to. They seemed to take a leap on this one, suggesting they are listening to voices and have taken sides. So, let her rip. Even if it may not be clear.
News, schmooze, we’ll tell you what to believe.
The new aggressiveness of the PD overall is welcomed. But some selectivity is in order. At times it seems the paper is just looking for a fight. Grrrr.
Now, if there has been a more critical voice about the Cleveland Foundation through the years, I guess I have to own up to it.
But I get the feeling that some new guys who think so highly of themselves – Brad Whitehead and the gang – have it in mind to be our new True Leaders – Entrepreneurs, Inc. They know what’s best. Fell in love with technology.
They maybe don’t think that helping Cleveland or Cuyahoga County counts for much anymore. Maybe they believe the core here really is dead. And not worth the opportunity to even lend a small helping hand.
I’m a bit surprised at the stridency of Dave Abbott of the Gund Foundation. He’s also chairman of the Fund. First, I always thought Abbott was a Cleveland city proper supporter. Abbott, in my experience, could never get much excited where it counted. He was a Tim Hagan man as Cuyahoga County administrator before he went truly corporate. As an original board member of Gateway there was nary a bad word about that abysmal operation. He was quiet as a mouse as the debt mounted.
Now, he’s roaring. “Silly and absurd” are knifing words. That’s how he described reaction to a column written for the PD supporting “collaboration” – the theme word of the Fund. It ran as an op/ed in the PD.
Ronn Richard, boss of the Cleveland Foundation, apparently is touchy that his institution has given millions of dollars to the Fund but has one vote – same as entities that gave $100,000. That’s what he offers to give each year now. But he did know the rules when he entered the deal.
The PD’s bomb hardly fit the “collaborative” theme everyone seems to think keen.
The publicity may have widened the gap between Richard of the Cleveland Foundation and Abbott of the smaller Gund Foundation. Usually, the two foundations are as collaborative in funding as two entities could get.
Maybe having the dirty linen hanging out is good but obviously it can be disruptive. A commodity overstocked here.
Back to your corners, guys.
Cleveland Tax Should Be Progressive, But It Isn’t
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Politicians on January 5, 2010
January 5, 2010… Mayor Frank Jackson’s inaugural talk was uninspiring, tedious and lacking the very essence of what it said it was about – the future.
Jackson offered Clevelanders nothing.
We face consistent population loss and job market breakdown. The city’s outlook is dismal. Cleveland has fewer people though more poor people as a percentage of the shrinking population.
This is the situation for most Ohio cities.
But you don’t see the political leaders of the major cities getting together to find solutions. They should be a powerful political coalition.
However, they seem to be each drowning in a downward spiral.
They all need money to operate.
One solution to the problem of revenue is very, very simple.
Get it from those who have it instead of from those who don’t.
What a novel idea.
Jackson’s fee tax on garbage is an example of uninspired thinking. Same as his traffic lights as revenue raisers.
But those “solutions” are easier than a real answer.
How can cities raise more money? They have to get the Ohio legislators to pass authorization that allows the cities to tax on a progressive basis.
What a novel idea.
We cannot keep going to those who have less and least for more revenue. That has been the process with sales taxes and sin taxes, garbage and other fees, and traffic tickets.
What the cities need is a progressive payroll tax, not the income tax that now exists where everyone pays the same rate. For wealth people a 2 or 3 percent payroll tax isn’t a burden. For a family on a limited income, it is a burden. It’s a hardship.
Where is the politician who will sell this state-wide, among cities and their political leaders?
Why should LeBron James – just the use the name everyone knows – pay a 2 percent city income tax and Joe or Jane Jones, making minimum wage, also pay a 2 percent tax. On the first penny they make, too.
LeBron likely has more income that doesn’t pay the payroll tax than Joe or Jane Jones makes in 10 years. Is that fair? Is that wise?
Why shouldn’t people earning big bucks pay a higher than 2 percent tax? Why should someone making minimum wage even pay a payroll tax?
I know how much it hurts. I paid city income taxes when I made so little that I paid no federal income tax. So have many, many others.
When are urban centers going to take care of their people? When are their people going to demand it?
When are police, fire and other public employees – enduring layoffs, low pay and no raises – going to demand that those with high incomes pay a fair share? Why are they willing to give away money that should go to their families to the families of the richest among us?
The lack of concern by these public employees amazes me. Don’t they realize that tens and hundreds of millions of dollars are being given away to businesses whose owners are wealthy but pay city taxes at the same rate they do?
Here are the top ten cities in Ohio. I ask why aren’t the people and their representatives demanding fair taxation legislation that would relieve the financial crisis all these cities face:
Columbus 754,885
Cleveland 433,748
Cincinnati 333,336
Toledo 293,201
Akron 207,510
Dayton 154,200
Canton 78,362
Parma 77,947
Youngstown 72,925
Lorain 70,239
Don’t wait for the Plain Dealer to lead this fight. Their top people benefit richly from things as they are. This is the kind of corruption Terry Egger and Susan Goldberg don’t – won’t – see.
This isn’t a reform they would favor.