Let’s see if he can stay in office full term, then we’ll talk!!

Crash test you toock the words right out of my mouth……unfortunatly that great movie is to true to the way things are today.

As far as the featured commenter is concerned:

First of all congrats on being selected as the featured comment of this discussion…I’m sure you are very proud. I’m sure you have already phoned your mother & cousins in St.Joseph, MO. Seriously, did you actually use the word “boondoggle”??? I’m sure that is the ONLY reason your comment was featured. Get a life, & get educated to the facts that sports franchises are HUGE to local economies. BOONDOGGLE.

Use political clout and promises of economic transformation to consolidate St. Louis’s 93 municipalities. That will be the way that the largest metro area in the state can be competitive in luring jobs (Tim) and keeping them.

By the way, it was the governor of Indiana that did just such a consolidation on Indianapolis in 1970. It’s why the economy “doesn’t suck as bad” in Indiana as it does in the rest of the country… and indirectly why I’m here now with a good highway engineering job.

Other benefits include savings with public services like schools, police and fire, and ability to concentrate development where the city wants (you should see the cranes on the downtown skyline).

I like Tim’s idea, first page, first post. That’s total 1st page ownage! Sweet.

Kdunlap - you are right on. I didn’t mention the delaration of wealthy areas like Des Peres as “blighted” so they can give Westfield and other power conglomerates tax breaks, but it should go without saying that abuses here should take top priority in Mr. Nixon’s fiscal belt-tightening moves.

wakeupwhitepeople - (your chosen psuedonym is enough to worry the rest of us…) — I stand by what I said. There is absolutely NO evidence that sports franchises contribute an appreciable amount to any large municipal budget in comparison to what they cost the area’s taxpayers, and if you think so, you are dreaming.

Oh - and sorry you have a problem with multi-syllabic words containing over six letters. You might want to look at a dictionary on rare occasion. When you get the hang of the English language, I really think you’ll enjoy it.

Steve - Only the state employees in Cole County, Jefferson City, had the day off to accommodate for the people coming to Jeff City for the inauguration. And I’m not sure the then Governor-Elect could give them the day off since he was not the Governor at the time the decision was made.

Unfortunately, the likelihood that Nixon will do much will be determined by the Republican General Assembly. His biggest challenge will be to get them to actually address the types of problems that are recorded in this forum. They are more apt, by their previous efforts, to play politics rather than govern. They didn’t even work well with the Republican Governor.

Rein in the tax breaks communities give to businesses to come to their community. No tax breaks without hard core jobs that pay well over 30000 a year, in addition to Oppose further sports franchise boondoggles and stop any further financing of sports venues with public funds, recognizing for the lie that it is that sports venues make a significant economic difference to the cities.

I have yet to see much of this ‘government waste’ that people always talk about, except by political elected officials and appointees. I have seen a lot of expenses which would be corporate expenses otherwise picked up out of pocket by lower echelon employees– office supplies, repair parts, transportation on government business in their private vehicles and not charged back to the government and so forth. Using a state procurement card (credit card) is a major logistical hassle, especially if you need a single lightbulb to replace one that just burned out at your facility, and you can get a replacement by taking your private car to Wal-Mart and getting one at your expense, rather than wait weeks to go through channels, and get a whole case of them, which will be obsoleted before you use them up.
Do Mr & Mrs Nixon intend to live in the Governor’s Mansion? It’s a short walk from there to the Capitol building, and a whole lot closer than Springfield. As far as Cole County state employees getting the day off– all of Jefferson City stops for the inauguration, (not just the government) so there wouldn’t have been any point to attempting to do business — no one else would have been in the office, anyway.