Politicians, Elites use Children to sell a Swindle
By Roldo Bartimole
The shameful use of children to sell a gambling issue reveals how depraved and immoral our local politicians and business leaders have become.
The disgraceful use of children to sell a gambling issue reveals the wantonness and lack of credibility of our local politicians.
What credibility do our local politicians have left? The lack of a moral compass is incredible.
Is there nothing they won’t stoop to in selling what their corporate benefactors desire? They play us for fools.
The fraudulently labeled “Learn & Earn” Issue 3 peddlers use TV images of children to sell their profit-making gambling business. I never noticed the word “gambling” or “slots” in the advertising. They speak only of “gaming.”
Gaming does have some proper descriptive quality to this venture. It well describes what the proponents of the gambling/slots are doing - gaming the public.
I won’t go into the easily accessible information on gambling addiction and its painful results on families, particularly the poor and working class, or the increases in criminal activity attendant with gambling. We know what that costs anxious communities.
A desperate community invites tragic mistakes. If Issue 3 passes and economic nirvana does not arrive, we will have an even more disheartened and depress community. We are inviting more hopelessness for Cleveland and Cuyahoga County.
The false sales pitch is very reminiscent of the message Gateway corporate pushers employed to entice voters in May of 1990.
A full-page ad ran in the Plain Dealer several days before the May vote in 1990 on the sin taxes for Gateway.� Atop the page was a large photograph of schoolchildren holding a sign “WE ALL DO,” informing readers who wins if they vote “Yes.”
The fallacy of the ad scammed many who either believed it or wanted to believe it.
Among the ad’s selling points was the promise of “$15 million a year for schools for our children.” Oh, yes, we must serve the interests of the children. As long as the profit margin is ample enough.
The ad also promised “No Tax Abatements,” meaning the schools, which get about 60 percent of property taxes, would benefit highly from the hundreds of million-dollar construction project.
Of course, the Cleveland schools never got a PENNY of that “$15 million a year.”
Not only that, Mayor Michael White and County Commissioner Tim Hagan after the vote, flew in a private corporate jet to Columbus to lobby – successfully – for a full tax exemption – beyond abatement - so that the stadium, arena, and garage or anything else constructed on Gateway property, would pay absolutely no property taxes NOW AND FOREVER.
So when Tim “Hypocrisy” Hagan – he of imperial arrogance - tells you to vote for “Learn and Earn” to help children, please do not take him at his word. His windy words aren’t worth the breath that escapes his mouth when he speaks.
It isn’t just Hagan. A slew of local politicians – primarily Democrats – pimp for slimy gambling interests of Jeff and Dick Jacobs and of Forest City’s Ratners and Sam Miller. A “yes” vote gives a monopoly to these two rapacious families.
In a Sunday full page PD ad politicians Jim “Pious” Rokakis and Frank “Hairpiece” Russo added themselves to list of Democratic officials selling gambling as an educational program. Disgusting.
The same families, which have used their power for personal profit for years, receive the usual obsequious service of our elected officials. Issue 3 also gives the city and county a small cut to be used for “economic development projects.” In other words, the funds are directed for more subsidies to the same avaricious developers as Jacobs and Ratner. Or maybe the Carneys, Hagan’s original benefactors.
Talk about a fixed game. No gambling for the Jacobs and Ratner families.
How reprehensible can you get? In a full-page ad in the Plain Dealer last week we have Hagan - he’s identified as the 2002 Democratic candidate for Governor when he then was merely a Democratic stand-in sacrificial lamb – Mayor Frank Jackson, who should have better things to do, and Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who doesn’t seem to have much at all to do.
The measure also reads that “Learn” school tuition funds go to “the top five percent of student at each accredited public and non-public high school,” which suggests that the neediest children are ruled out from the get go. Typical of elitist decision-makers.
The ads fraudulently don’t highlight gambling or slots. How clever. Once again, it promises “$850 million” a year in college tuition assistance with an asterisk citing some “consulting study” in little type.
Typical of the swindle an ad in the Free Times is headlined: “Vote YES for Ohio’s Kids. College Tuition for Every Ohio Child.” Its emblem isn’t a slot machine but a graduation cap and a bright sun to image success.
The first full-page ad also repeats voter approval “will create 56,000 good paying permanent jobs with healthcare benefits.”
Lying comes naturally to these people. They are peddlers of muddled priorities; setting themselves on the side of greed and corruption.
No wonder Americans have less and less respect for their leaders. They so deservingly earn it.
Further, the “Learn and Earn” newspaper ad brings together the Editorial Board of the Plain Dealer, the Greater Cleveland Partnership and the Cuyahoga Democratic Party, all favoring this deception.
What a rat’s nest have we here.
I find the claim of 56,000 jobs - if not incredulous - at least amusing that 56,000 is exactly double the 28,000 “good paying jobs for the jobless” the Gateway ad promised 16 years ago. Are these people purposely mocking us?
Why not double the number since Gateway has never produced anything close to 28,000 “good paying” jobs - if any at all. Cleveland, in fact, has done nothing but lose jobs since 1990.
One hopes that people “learn” from the past that lying remains an occupational hazard for our politicians, our civic and corporate leaders.
They can’t help themselves.
Be sure also that the strong corporate backing of this tax has one single purpose. It’s the foundation upon which the Hagans, Joe Romans, the Jacobses, Carneys and Ratners, et al, will come back to the community for a billion-dollar convention center.
We have gambling, they’ll say, therefore, we MUST now have a new convention center.
On The Arts Tax, Issue 18
On the arts tax issue, I believe I have to make a correction. I noted in a previous column (see prior columns on both issues 3 & 18) that the sin tax on cigarettes raised $80 million in 15 years, noting that the estimates by the cigarette tax proponents say it will raise some $20 million a year, $200 million for its 10-year duration.
The tax is highly regressive and falls inequitably on a small number of people, typically of lower incomes.
However, when looking more carefully the estimate may be quite low.
The first 10 years of the sin tax brought in $58 million. The cigarette tax was based on only 4.5 cents a package.
This proposed arts tax is for 30 cents a package. That’s slightly more than six times the 4.5-cent Gateway tax, which raised $58 million in the first 10 years.
Six times $58 million would be $348-million over a ten-year period, or $34.8 million a year, not some $20 million as proponents suggest.
Here again Hagan calls those who oppose this issue “hypocrites.”� However, anyone who taxes cigarette consumption and does not use the funds to help those addicted to smoke certainly earns the appellation of “hypocrite.” The health concerns of smokers should be primary in a tax on them.
As with the historic East 9th Street Breur Building, bought by the County for its new downtown headquarters, but to be demolished, Hagan does not want to be confused with facts. He tossed off attempts to renovate the building rather than knock it down and build anew even though his way might cost $20 million more (and maybe double that when one considers borrowing costs).
The bull-headed Hagan should have the word “hypocrite” stamped on his forehead, since there’s very little other use for what’s there.
Kucinich Remains A Problem For The Plain Dealer
Reluctantly and begrudgingly, the Plain Dealer recently editorially endorsed Dennis Kucinich in the 10the Congressional district after not endorsing him in his primary. Strange behavior.
My suggestion to the PD is in the future to run the headline: “10th Congressional District endorsement.” Then instead of editorial tripe, run some blank space beneath the headline. We’ll all get the message and ''PD' editors will save themselves the embarrassment of thinking up backhanded reasons for their decision.
On one thing, I agree with the PD. Kucinich should stay out of the 2008 Presidential race. It will be hard for him.
In 1967, I believe it was, I walked the streets of Tremont with Dennis as he was first campaigning for City Council. He told me, immediately recognizing his mistake, if he won this time, he “could go all the way.” I asked what he meant by “all the way,” though I knew. The 19-year old was talking about the Presidency. He lost that first race for Council. The itch, however, has never left him.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole roldoATadelphia.net
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