An Oakland City Council subcommittee has unfortunately decided to revive a new parcel tax that would pay for park maintenance and tree trimming, according to today’s Trib. As we argued two weeks ago, this is a bad idea in a steep recession when Oakland residents are already hurting and foreclosures are at record levels. We know that without the tax, the council will have to make some serious cuts. But we think the city’s bureaucracy is still bloated, and we’d rather see layoffs of unessential people (starting with the mayor’s office), and some hard bargaining with unions to give pay concessions. Let’s hope the full council makes the right decision, and stops begging property owners to bail out the city before it has taken on the real sacred cows in Oakland government – namely overpaid, unnecessary city workers.
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