If you watched or attended the Cascade City Council meeting Monday night, you know it ran longer than usual because there was a bit of a set-to disguised as a discussion between Councilman Riley Rausch and Brad Ludwig and Ken McDermott of Ohnward Bank, president and vice-president respectively of Cascade Economic Development Corporation.
Initially, it sounded informational: Rausch asked McDermott for a rundown of the group’s activities, the land they had acquired and developed, etc. But by the end though, I surmised it had more to do with Rausch’s wife’s (Hailey Rausch, interim president of the Commercial Club) advocating the creation of $60,000 marketing, promotion and volunteer coordinator position.
Subsequent to that discussion, the city entertained a request from Maryville Corporation for a street estimated to cost $180,000, but did not act. Council then forked over $38,849, to Callahan Construction, its Tax Increment Financing Riverbend Rebate, $26,537.56 to the Premium Plant TIF Rebate, and $460 to Centro, which will get larger in the near future. These elaborate programs transfer ordinary citizens’ tax money to some of the wealthiest people in a community.
If you read anything more than your mail, you know that books like Rich White Men, Poverty in America, and The Man Who Broke Capitalism have actually ferreted out how much guys like Jeff Bezos, Mitt Romney and the Trump corporations they get out of the public pot and hold them responsible for the shrinking middle class and the pain and poverty in the lower class.
Locally, we have the same problem. Normally, the city gives Economic Development $20,000. Cascade is a city with ancient, deteriorating water mains, unmaintained alleys, potholes in a lot of its streets and sidewalks that haven’t gotten any attention for five years. Early in the month a couple water pumps failed.
Perhaps we should just cut out welfare to the wealthy altogether.
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