Right of Wright's blog

Yesterday, MTD (who is not yet identified) posted the tax rates and total property tax take for the Mass Transit District. While I have no way of knowing if the information is accurate, I think it is interesting that MTD uses the information in support of the statement “...but I think you'll have a hard time coming up with examples of other taxing authorities who have a more responsible history than we do.”

According to MTD's numbers, the Mass Transit District more than doubled their tax rate from 1990 until 1996 and the amount they received in property tax revenue tripled. If this is what passes for a “responsible history” by people at the Mass Transit District, then the District is more out of touch than I realized. Doubling property tax rates makes the Urbana City Council look conservative.

Lost in yesterday's debate about the extent of MTD coverage by the News-Gazette was this weekend's comments from MTD. Whether MTD is truly a Republican MTD employee or not is impossible to know from the posts. However, he presented some interesting ideas within this debate and I hope that he/she continues to give input, maybe even identifying him/herself.

He's actually answered more questions on this blog than the MTD has answered in any local media. I hope that MTD continues to involve him/herself in our debate. Whoever he/she is, I think it has elevated the discussion on this blog. Hopefully we're providing one more venue for an important public policy debate, which is a big part of what this blog is about.

In an editorial Sunday, the News-Gazette shows an amazing disconnect from the reality of what is happening with the Mass Transit District.

It is obvious that they are not following the debate on this website. It is even more clear that they haven't followed the problems of the MTD as covered and not covered by their paper.

They criticize the opponents of annexation with the same canards used by the MTD. But they don't seem to want to get answers to any of the questions that opponents are asking. Why do we need to expand service to areas that don't want it? Why has the MTD doubled their tax rate in the last decade? Why won't the MTD promise to drop their tax rate after the annexations? Why should we be paying for empty buses and big contracts for Volk?

One would think that any of the above questions might merit a little attention from a newspaper. In this town, one would be wrong. The News-Gazette has largely turned into a lap dog for area governments, with a critical eye rarely turned to the business of government.

In the end, the News-Gazette suggests that a mediator be brought in to orchestrate some kind of sit down to get the two sides of the annexation issue to agree. Maybe it's time for us to invite some investigative journalists to town to sit down with the News-Gazette and retrain them on investigative journalism. Then, the News-Gazette can do an editorial explaining why Scott Tapley has to do Freedom of Information Act requests to get information that should be revealed by our local paper.

...smoke. According to the Kirby Pringle in the Etc. section of the News-Gazette Thursday, the Blind Pig has canceled their smoke free Happy Hours on Tuesday because of a lack of support from non-smokers. Similarly, according to Pringle, the Outer Banks in Pesotum, also ended the smoking ban in their bar.

Add the University of North Dakota to the list of universities willing to call the NCAA on their hypocrisy and capriciousness. President Charles Kupchella addresses a letter to the NCAA wherein he points out the total lack of definition to the terms “hostile” and “abusive”. President Kupchella also notes the notable efforts of UND to provide academic opportunities to Indians. Kupchella notes that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found nothing hostile in the environment at UND.

The Office for Civil Rights sent a half-dozen people to our campus. They fanned out across campus and after more than a week here, found no such thing. Did the Executive Committee find some things they missed, perhaps? Or does a committee in Indianapolis trump the Office for Civil Rights here, on the ground, in North Dakota?

The NCAA is allowing the University of North Carolina at Pembroke to keep their Indian logo. Kupchella points out the arbitrariness of this decision. Just how many Indians must be on campus in order to allow that institution to adopt a nickname that the NCAA calls hostile and abusive? Maybe this is why the Fighting Irish are allowed to keep their name; they’re getting cover from all the O’Malleys and Fitzgeralds on campus. The NCAA has long been guilty of arbitrary and unfair rules that have harmed student athletes and done little to promote academic excellence. Unfortunately, they have a monopoly that makes it difficult to stop them. The Fighting Sioux however seem up to the challenge.

I know IP won't toot his own horn here, so I wanted to direct everyone's attention the News-Gazette article today from Kate Clements which continues the debate that we have been having on this website for 9 days.

We'll never know if this would have gotten into the newspaper without IP, but the headline of the article itself says “Jakobsson's ”Ëœlegislative update' triggers blog-site debate", which makes one think that it would not have.

Of course, one deceptive act by Jakobsson (sending out a false newsletter) has now revealed more duplicity. Only 25,122 households actually received the mailing, far below the number of households that are in the district (which has over 100,000 people). Who was excluded from the mailing? What selection set was used for the mailing? It appears that Jakobsson “targeted” this mailing, which is a de facto political move. When one uses taxpayer expense to send out a mailing, one would think that every tax payer would receive it. But Jakobsson has seen fit to discriminate against some of her constituents, maybe those she thought would be upset by the message in her newsletter.

Florida State may have already opened up a little hole in the NCAA's policy regarding Native American symbols. In a commentary posted on the NCAA website, Myles Brand admits that FSU has a good case.

To be fair, some American Indian tribes have expressed their approval of the manner in which their names and imagery are used by specific institutions. Florida State University is a well-documented case in point, and that will likely be the basis for any appeal. The Executive Committee must take such claims seriously.

Illinois is in an unfortunate situation in this regard. First, most of the Illini Indians were wiped out by other Indians. The few that are left, the Peoria tribe in Oklahoma, once expressed their approval of the use of Chief Illiniwek. However, after a significant amount of pressure from various radical activists, many of whose ancestors tried to wipe out the Illini, the Peoria Indians changed their position.

There really is no reason the Peoria wouldn't go back to their original position. The University should open up a frank dialog with them to create a program that keeps their heritage alive within the University while providing education and economic opportunities for members of the Peoria tribe. Our University and the Peoria tribe should join together in a mutually beneficial relationship that will put us in the same situation as FSU.

If one listens lately to the MTD board and Bill Volk and reads the letters to the editor of people who support the forced annexations of new areas into the MTD, all one hears about is fairness.  We all should pay a fair share of the cost of mass transit. 

But all the citizens of Lincolnshire Fields and Savoy want is the status quo.  And for over 25 years, the status quo has been "fair"   And if it hasn't been fair, than why hasn't the MTD done anything about it?  As a citizen of Urbana for over two decades, can I sue the MTD for failing to annex these areas earlier? 

My farcical comment here is to illustrate the point that this whole debate is not about fairness, except in the minds of a few people who believe fairness involves equal pain ( a typically liberal mindset that has taken over the minds of a few moderates around the community)  If it was about fairness, the MTD board would be talking about how they would expand their tax base and lower tax rates.  But they aren't saying that because they have no intention of doing that. 

What they do have the intention of doing is padding their already bloated budget.  They say that it has nothing to do with the trolley, but why else would they need all this money. 

Let's analyze this from a fiscal standpoint.

If the cost of servicing Savoy and Lincolnshire Fields is more than the tax revenue gotten, than the MTD is fiscally imprudent to do it and everyone in the district should be upset because it will raise costs for those already in the district.

If the cost of servicing Savoy and Lincolnshire Fiels is the same as the tax revenue recieved, than what is the point of the annexation?  The district would gain nothing and the residents would be hurt.

So obviously, the cost of servicing these new areas must be less than the revenue that will be gained.  If this is the case, which it obviously is, than why isn't the MTD talking about how they are going to lower all of our tax rates?  The answer is simple.  They aren't going to lower the tax rates of those of us already paying into the district because they are going to keep that money and use it for their own pet projects, whether it is junkets around the world, or the boondoggle "light rail" system. 

Those of us already in the MTD ought to be thankful to those who are curbing Volk's empire building, because giving more money to this bloated bureaucracy will do nothing to foster the needed reforms there.

Last week on Penny For Your Thoughts on WDWS, Bill Volk was asked whether he rode the mass transit district. He told the caller "rarely". He then proceeded to justify this by saying that one didn't need to have diabetes (or some sort of disease, I can't remember exactly) in order to support efforts to fight diabetes. Similarly, he is able to be an advocate for mass transit without being a rider.

I can't really think of a more inapt or offensive comparison to make. Having diabetes is not a voluntary act or a chosen way of life. As such, those who fight against diabetes without having it are not somehow being hypocrites.

I can find more apt comparisons. Like a businessman who advocates for the disabled but doesn't have a ramp that allows them to enter his business. A politician who votes to ban SUVs but drives one himself.

The proponents of mass transit and their high density growth partners seem to love telling people what our community should look like and how we all should act. But when it comes to actually doing what they tell others to do, many of them, like Bill Volk, leave a lot to be desired.

I unfortunately didn't get much of a chance to listen to Bill Volk and George Friedman on the radio the other day. But I did catch two interesting comments, on one of which I'll comment today.

George Friedman criticized the opponents of mass transit and then suggested that we imagine what it would be like if we had 25% more cars on the road. This is not the first time I've heard an MTD backer use this figure. They claim this to be the figure of people who use alternate methods of transit to get to work. Sometimes, although not always, they add in the disclaimer that not all those people using alternate methods are using mass transit. But never, in all the times I've heard these two pontificate, have I heard one actually give the figure of percentage of workers using mass transit in this town.

The census has the figures and they are available with some work by going to their website. For 2000, the number of workers in the Champaign-Urbana urban area is 62,573. Of those, 4,242 are using mass transit. That's 6.8%. With their rhetoric about 25% more cars on the road the mass transit folks are taking claim for the 7,260 people who walk, the 1,579 who ride bikes, and the 2,138 who work at home.

A very small proportion of the work force is using mass transit. When we consider just what percentage of that 4,276 are students then the impact of mass transit taking cars off the road is reduced even more. Quite probably, a large percentage of those taking mass transit would walk or ride a bike instead of drive (as I did when I was in college.)

The MTD is able to get away with this type of obfuscation because no one seems to care. These types of figures never show up in the local news and only recently are showing up in the blogging world.

Hopefully the misrepresentations of the MTD will now be caught before they gain credence in the public at large.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Marcus Mason is leaving the Illinois football team.  They also are reporting that Julia Rietz is essentially going to let him off charges of burglary (just like Luther Head and Richard McBride) AND charges of forgery and unauthorized use of a credit card.  Mason will merely have to go through adult diversion.

It will be interesting to see the level of outrage leveled at Rietz for this virtually non-existent punishment by both the News-Gazette and the Champaign County bar, especially in light of the fact that the charges are more serious than the ones against Head and McBride.

Update:

Matthew correctly points out that I failed to mention the most important point of the post.  John Piland (whipping boy of the News-Gazette) was the State's Attorney who let McBride and Head off.  Now Julia Rietz (darling of the News-Gazette) is doing the same thing...but one anticipates with less criticism from the NG.  So far, the NG online version hasn't even covered the story.

A lot of blood has been spilled in this country and around the world to guarantee the right to vote.  Now that Scott Tapley has collected more than enough signatures to get the referendum to create a new mass transit district in SW champaign, it appears that those residents will get an opportunity to decide their own fate with a vote.

However, it is entirely possible that they may have to end up in court over the whole issue.  Our current MTD is no fan of public input, and they certainly don't like to be told that they can't do something, so no one will be surprised if they try to annex the areas in question before the vote ever happens.  They would follow up that annexation by suing to prevent the new district from being voted on or taking effect.

If the MTD pursues such a plan, they will cement their reputation as elitists less concerned about serving the public and more concerned about expanding their empire.

If you want a critical eye to be cast by the News-Gazette at any school board, it's not going to be done by Anne Cook.

Her article today in the News-Gazette almost makes heroes out of John Alumbaugh and the rest of the cast of characters in the Mahomet School Board who have squandered millions with little to show for it. Alumbaugh's chief claim to being fiscally prudent is that he now buys his own newspaper. If he starts filling his own candy dish on his desk than maybe we should make him the state budget director.

What you won't read in the article is that Mahomet is not covered by tax caps, unlike Champaign, Urbana, Rantoul, Unity, and most other school districts in the county.

You also don't hear a word in the article about the fat pay raises that Alumbaugh got that will pad his upcoming retirement.

You see a chart showing the increase in the education fund. What you won't read is that this averages out to 6.2% a year. Far ahead of inflation.

You won't read a word about the expenditures of the other funds. So while we see a snapshot of the education fund expenditures, we don't have any indication of the overall expenditures and how those have increased.

The MS school district, operating under far less stringent rules than other Champaign County districts, has been a failure. It shows that the best efforts of state government officials can be offset by the incompetence of local administrative staff.

Good luck to the new board president in cleaning up the mess he has inherited.

When bureaucracies see their grip on power start to slip, they and their supporters pull out a number of tactics. It happened this week at one of the new blogs, Champaign Common Sense. The normally reasonable author there decided to go off on Scott Tapley and claim that some people in the new proposed southwest Champaign mass transit district would lose bus service to school for their children. This was first of all either a misunderstanding on the author's part, a misrepresentation, or a lie. Second, it was a great local example of what we see nationally. "Social security is going broke, but it will be even worse if we do the Bush plan." Yes, the MTD is out of control, an undemocratic bloated bureaucracy. But it will be even worse if we create this new district.

In the interest of the truth, here are the facts.

Champaign Unit 4 is a community unit school district. As such it has an obligation to provide bus service to all children who live more than 1.5 miles from a school. There seemed to be some misunderstanding regarding this requirement so I called the State Board of Education where someone in the school transportation funding area explained this to me. Ironically, the Urbana school district is not a unit district and so they are not under any obligation to provide transportation.

Every household in the proposed mass transit district is at least 1.5 miles away from the nearest school according to mapquest. I figured this by using 4001 W Kirby and 4000 W Windsor as the two points closest to town in the new district. Only 4001 W Kirby (Bible Baptist Church) was within 1.5 miles. As it was 1.46 miles, and a mere 70 more yards would make it 1.5 miles from Kenwood school, it is apparent that every household in the new district is part of the school district's mandated bus service area.

Unfortunately, the truth is often a casualty when bureaucracies have their empires challenged.

Don't believe the rumors about lost bus service for your kids. Unit 4 will have to provide it, regardless of what happens with the new mass transit district.

The News-Gazette Sunday had an article that points out how Barack Obama has kept a low profile in Washington while maintaining rock star status across the country. Obama was able to go through last year's Senate race without raising any red flags regarding his liberal positions. Back to back scandals by millionaires Blair Hull and Jack Ryan gave Obama the luxury of campaigning as the nice guy and sweeping to a huge electoral victory.

So far, Obama hasn't shown any inclination to put his left foot to far forward. Aside from his rather odd comparison of his upper middle class roots with Abraham Lincoln's remarkably difficult life, Obama has made no missteps.

But now Obama has his first major vote to show Illinois voters just where he will align himself. If he votes against John Roberts for the Supreme Court, he will demonstrate that he is part of the fringe of the Democratic Party. If he votes for Roberts, he'll manage to hold onto the facade of moderation that much longer.

Obama was put into office by the far left wing of the Democratic Party. I'll be surprised if he bucks them and votes to put the eminently qualified Roberts on the bench.

If you've followed Illinois politics long enough, you know that Dick Durbin has flip flopped on abortion. He was elected to the U.S House as a conservative pro-life Democrat. Then, as he became ensconced in Washington, he did as so many other Democrats have done. He changed his position in order to make himself palatable on a statewide and national level. And like so many Democrats, his flip flop has degenerated into shrill negative attacks against those who held the positions on which Durbin was first elected.

Tim Russert today called him on it in beautiful fashion. Unfortunately, after sticking him, Russert allowed him to draw out the spear without a followup thrust.

Durbin conceded that his position had changed. Here is his rather bizarre reason which shows a shockingly immature way of decision making.

"But I was really discouraged when I came to Washington to find that the opponents of abortion were also opponents of family planning. This didn't make any sense to me. And I was also discouraged by the fact that they were absolute, no exceptions for rape and incest, the most extraordinary medical situations. And I finally came to the conclusion that we really have to try to honor the Roe vs. Wade thinking, ..."

So Durbin used to be pro-life, but he didn't like the attitude of other people who were pro-life so he changed his position? I'm not shocked at this, just shocked that he admitted it. Durbin as much as announced that he bases important public policy decisions like abortion on personalities, not on what is right or wrong.

I hope Durbin continues to get run in front of the cameras. After the 2002 election I didn't think there was a chance to ever beat him. But as he continues to drift deeper into the left wing of the Democratic party I can't help but think that the relatively moderate people of Illinois will rebel.

A lengthy search with Google has found a paucity of research regarding the environmental impact of cars vs. buses. The following undated article is one that provides some statistics. It was cited by another author in 2001. I think the lack of research in this area points to the biases by academia toward mass transit. If people can point me to other sources I'll post them.

This statement in the Corson article is telling.

A bus with as few as seven passengers is more fuel efficient than the average automobile used for commuting.

If we take this as something of a fact (and I am very willing to have better and newer research shown to me) than any bus with under 7 passengers automatically becomes less efficient. Busses with more than 7 passengers are potentially environmentally more friendly, but that is reduced each time any of those passengers is transported a greater distance than they would have driven (which is very likely with circuitous bus routes).

But even more important is the nitrogen oxides. A fully loaded bus emits 1.54 grams per passenger mile (g/pm). A car with one occupant emits 2.06 g/pm. If we assume that the bus holds 60 people, the totals grams emitted by the bus would be 92.4. Under this calculation, any time the occupancy of the bus drops below 45 passengers, it becomes more polluting than a single passenger car. The EPA can tell you how awful nitrogen oxides are. If you stand next to a bus, you can find out for yourself.

Utopians have a vision of everyone driving the bus to work together and saving Mother Earth. Ms. Corson says so herself in her article:

Obviously, if the majority of people used a public transport system instead of private vehicles, there would be less pollution produced.

The cold reality is that most people want to drive and are going to continue to drive. So our bus system should be based on that fact. By basing it on the wishful thinking of mass transit junkies, the MTD is almost certainly pouring more pollutants into our local environment than if they would merely confine themselves to areas that really need service.

Would liberals feel any different about it? I'll be interested to find out. The latest test scores show increases for the youngest children, and, more importantly, show a closing of the racial gap between whites and blacks.

The education community feels that because they are “teaching to the test” that somehow the overall education of the child is compromised. These studies really can't speak to that. What they do speak to is that young black students have made more progress than white students.

Conservatives will be ecstatic about this progress. While liberals complain about teaching to the test, conservatives complain about the discrimination of low expectations. Prior to NCLB, when a young black student failed to meet expectations, the loser was the young black student. Now, with the threats within NCLB, the loser could be the schools. It's interesting how schools are improving since they have the fear of losing funding and being embarrassed publicly.

Scott Tapley did a great job on WDWS today. And Friedman kept up the MTD mantra (big lie) about sharing.

In Friedman's Utopia, anyone who derives even the most limited benefit from the expenditures of others should pay for that benefit. That's his public line.

But his lie is this. He doesn't want you to share, he wants you to pay. If this was about sharing, the MTD would keep their property tax levy the same and let everyone's rate drop. Instead, what they do is annex territories that don't need or want service and charge them full price. No one else in Champaign Urbana is going to benefit from these annexations, and in fact people in the current MTD will be hurt. It will take longer for buses to run their routes, and the tax rates will not drop. Everyone in the CUMTD ought to be on Tapley's side unless the MTD would guaranteee lower taxes upon the annexations. That won't happen.

Friedman and Volk want more money, plain and simple. More money for the Trolley. More money for trips to Europe. More money for high priced executives.

Friedman also claims that he doesn't want Mahomet, Tolono and St. Joseph. If so, then he's a hypocrite. Under the Friedman Doctrine, if a person benefits from the reduced traffic, they ought to pay into the system. Commuters in Mahomet benefit far more than retirees in Lincolnshire Fields. The Friedman Doctrine says that Tolonoites ought to pay as well.

Good Luck to the folks in Lincolnshire Fields, et al.

A flurry of e-mails are going around among county board members regarding the mold in the county nursing home. You can read the news-gazette account from a month ago here.

However, it looks like things have changed since then. First, the insurance policy for the county may not cover the cost. Second, the cost could be much higher, as much as $1 million. And if the county is not able to recover the costs in a suit, then taxpayers will foot the bill.

County board members are mad because some feel like they haven't been given the whole story. And if you go to the County Board website you'll see that while the news article says the problem started in February, it never was raised at a county board meeting until May.

So will the county pursue suing the contractors? Also, will people shy away from the "best" nursing home in the county if it has a problem with mold.

The courthouse project ended up being way over the original estimates, but no one noticed because it is being paid for with the sales tax. However, the nursing home project is all being paid for by the property tax. A million more on the property tax will make be noticed, especially if it's caused by a screw up by the board.