Here is what local reporters and commentators are saying about the proposed new tax. For more go to GreenspaceForNOLA City Business Opinion: Audubon Reaches Too Far for Tax Support, 3/12/14 neworleanscitybusiness/blog/2014/03/12/opinion-audubon-reaches-too-far-for-tax-support/ “. . . what Forman is asking from New Orleans in Saturday’s election goes beyond asking for a helping hand. The 50-year, 4.2-mill property tax request reaches too deep and too long into the pockets of property owners without adequate specificity on the use of the resources. . . . In addition details are needed to justify the level of funding being sought. . . . It’s a tougher sell to ask for nearly $12 million a year for the next half-century without more concrete ideas of how that money will be spent.” SYNC504: Jeff Thomas: Audubon’s New Tax on the Ballot jeffweb2.fatcow/index.html “ Yet there has been no public outreach by the Audubon Institute to explain the need for more tax dollars. No future plans have been made public. . . . The Institute is a private organization without any public oversight that has shown the propensity for unbridled growth. Meanwhile, citizens will have no recourse for the next 50 YEARS. . . . . Ladies and gentlemen this is a NEW TAX! The politically savvy Audubon Nature Institute is conspicuously silent. . . . in 1983 . . . they launched an full scale campaign to pass the new tax. The difference you ask? Then they were behind a good project - the Aquarium. Now they are seeking cash - welfare. Ron Forman makes a nearly a million dollars a year. In a city thats strapped for cash, we have many other and better uses for $550 Million Dollars. VOTE NO to Audubon Institute Welfare.” Uptown Messenger: Owen Courreges: Admission-based Audubon Zoo Does Not Need Your Support 3/10/14 uptownmessenger/2014/03/owen-courreges-admission-based-audubon-zoo-does-not-need-your-tax-money/ Ron Forman makes over $700,000 per year, yet he’s acting like a beggar. And the worst part is, he’s not even an honest one. . . . Even the Times-Picayune . . . . called this characterization of the new tax “a stretch” because it amounts to “an increase, rather than a renewal.” When your own insufferable sycophants point out that your pants are ablaze, you’re in trouble.” Advocate: Proposed 50-year millage for Audubon generating controversy 3/11/14 theadvocate/news/neworleans/8571198-148/proposed-50-year-millage-for-audubon “Even so, it’s a proposition that has raised eyebrows for a number of reasons, not just the big dollar figure involved or the unusually long 50-year expiration date. Unlike the last time Forman asked taxpayers for money — back in 1986 to build the aquarium — there has been little public discussion of what the institute plans to do with the extra cash. And that’s despite plenty of time for debate: Audubon’s existing millages won’t expire until 2021 and 2022.” Advocate: James Gill Column: Tax Plan Makes Credibility an Endangered Species 3/13/14 theneworleansadvocate/opinion/jamesgill/8604854-171/james-gill-tax-plan-makes “ . . . there is hardly any public oversight of how the Audubon Nature Institute spends the taxpayer’s money. But, shoot, it’s only asking for another $12 million a year to start with, and it’ll all be over in 50 years. . . . In fact, trust in the ANI is taking a knock already, because it insists on characterizing Saturday’s proposition as a tax renewal, rather than an increase. The pretext for this legerdemain is that voters are being asked to combine the two taxes at the rates in force at the time of their adoption, a total of 4.2 mills. But the City Council rolled back those millages several years ago and they now stand at 3.31.” VOTE NO ON SATURDAY
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 02:39:46 +0000
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