At Thursday's budget session (4:30 p.m.), acting city manager John Fitzpatrick will announce that he has received a check from the Experimental Aircraft Association to cover the cost of sewage treatment for the 2007 convention. After the sewage fee waiver (approved in 1986 by a common council that rubber stamped then city manager Bill Freuh's city manager statement request for it) was revealed at the October 30th budget session, councilor Paul Esslinger called EAA president Tom Poberezny to request that EAA voluntarily pay the fee. Kudos to Esslinger for taking the leadership to call Poberezny and kudos to EAA for making the payment.
What's still not clear is whether the city can recover unpaid fees from the prior 20 years, or whether a formal resolution from the council is still necessary to ensure payment of the fees for all following years. I will raise these questions at the Thursday session.
The EAA sewage fee waiver is an excellent example of local "corporate welfare." Do other examples exist in Oshkosh? Absent a Budget Committee or other citizen led body charged with looking critically at the city's finances, it is difficult to know. The EAA fee waiver lasted for 20 years without anyone asking a question about it, so we can only imagine what else has been forgotten. Anyone with the time and desire should try and get hold of the city manager reports from around 1970-1996 and review them closely--who knows what kind of goodies might be turned up!
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3 comments:
This is wonderful news. Thanks to you for pointing it out, to councilman Essligner for making the call and to the EAA organization for doing the right thing, even though they technically wouldn't have needed to. But because Tom Poberezny may not always be at the helm and a successor may not necessarily be as generous and unerstanding of our budget issues, I would be in support of a formal resolution to not waive the fees in future years.
Who knows why former city manager Bill Frueh made this exception. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that 20 years ago EAA was not nearly the size it is now and he felt the city was helping them along. But, as with anything, time and circumstances have changed, making a reconsideration of this waiver important. Things such as this should rarely, if ever, be granted for perpetuity.
I would also ask the question, what industry in the Oshkosh area relies on government contracts to make a profit. Given the times I think we know the answer. Ohter than creating jobs does this industry-with its cost plus contract- contribute to Oshkosh in taxes and how much. i would speculate that the corporate tax rate is about 5%. On the other hand my tax rate is at 30%. Thus having a low corporate tax rate is also welfare. The extra money goese to shareholders and ceo salaries not to the local community.
Interesting speculations Working to make a living. We can't press too hard though. I heard China is studying up on how to fill the same need. I have said enough. Recent headlines have said more.
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