O'Brien chopping the legs off the OTAG debate!

10 posts / 0 new

Tue, 2010-09-07 09:53

footlesscar

A great announcement and debate set out by the great OTAG, undermined by the current mayor O'Brien, out of fear of personal dislikes.

OTAG has come out with a Councillor's debate about the topic of "No New Money". "No New Money" is an ideal brought forward by Randall Denley in his book "The Perfect Candidate" where no money is ever assumed to be coming forward, as a councillor/mayor, you deal with the money in hand. If you need money for a section in the budget, you need to take it from somewhere else in the budget. This is great right? Apparently O'Brien doesn't think so. This debate was announced and is set to happen on the 13th of September.

Merely hours after this announcement, the O'Brien team announced that they feel the need to give a list of supporters for his plan and a list of councillors/councillor candidates that he would feel best working with. Guess what date he chose? the 12th of September, coincidence that it is the day before the OTAG meeting? I think not. I think that O'Brien saw some of the names on the list and decided that he doesn't want to hear from them before choosing 'the O'Brien council'. I think that there are some people on the list for "No New Money" that O'Brien has personal issues with and does not want to support, so out of desperation he feels that he needs to choose 'the O'Brien council' before this great OTAG event happens. So that he can say 'Oh, I didn't realize that's what his/her platform was'. Well, 'Hello!' they are in the "No New Money" debate because that is part of their platform.

I feel the O'Brien announcement on the 12th of September will cut the legs out from under the few that have been chosen to participate in the OTAG councillor debate on the 13th of September. How about you?

Tue, 2010-09-07 10:02

Cueball

This is Ottawa?

Tue, 2010-09-07 10:17

footlesscar

Yes, this is Ottawa, Canada

Tue, 2010-09-07 10:30

Cueball

Ok, well, I am a little lost on the details of the whole thing, perhaps you could fill in some of the background?

Tue, 2010-09-07 10:50

footlesscar

OTAG= Ottawa Taxpayers Advocacy Group. The group has been created to combat the rise in taxes when the platform of the Mayor was 'I will raise taxes by 0% when I get in' Sure enough 10%+ later (over 4 years), this group is trying to get the councillors and the mayor to explain how they will be able to accomplish their goal of either 0%, 2.5% or 5% rise in taxes. "No New Money", as explained above, is a strong base for the OTAG group and they are supporting the rise of taxes at 0%. O'Brien is supposedly running on the platform of 0% as well, but he feels he needs to announce who is supporting his platform the day before OTAG has people speak supporting the 0% increase. There are a few councillor/councillor candidates on the list to speak at the OTAG debate that O'Brien does not like, on a personal level and has intentionally supported competitors (in the 2006 election) in an effort to prevent them from being elected.

Anything more specific Cueball that is not understood? Or that I may try to explain better/deeper?

Tue, 2010-09-07 10:54

Cueball

Thanks! Got a link?

Tue, 2010-09-07 11:05

footlesscar

http://www.ottawataxpayer.com/

and the O'Brien announcment is the first News Update on the right-hand side

Tue, 2010-09-07 11:10

Cueball

Thanks.

Tue, 2010-09-07 11:23

Polunatic2

What about annual inflation? "No new money" sounds like a formula for systemic, annual cuts just to keep up with rising cost of living.

Tue, 2010-09-07 12:18

#10

No Yards

Isn't this the kind of thinking (no new taxes) that got California (and the USA for that matter) into the finnacial trouble it is curretly in?

No new taxes is fine, until something really needs to get done and all the "cuttable" things have been cut to the bone ... then the borrowing starts, and no money is available to pay off the interst on the loan let alone the loan itself, then the shit hits the fan.

I know the "tax cut" crowd always likes to represent themselves as simply just "tax cutters", but they usually always end up as the "cut and borrow" crowd instead.

--------

Just looking at the link for the OTAG site ... they are have a freaken on-line Internet poll from a conservative talk radio station ("left on the dial, right on the issues" is, or was their slogan) prominently displayed on their web site as though it actually reflected anything related to reality.

Quote:
OTAG would like to announce a new litmus test for council and candidates. It is being implemented by the federal Conservative government and to some extent by the Liberal provincial government.

Yeah, as though a litmus test from the federal Cons could lead to anything useful.

Let's just say I remain to be convinced ... to put it mildly.