Roy Exum
It is hardly a secret that a covey of inept Democratic Governors and the Democratic Mayors of some of the largest cities in the United States have willfully enabled horrible and unconscionable terror and destruction in places like Minneapolis, Portland, New York and Chicago. It was just learned that Wednesday the rioting by criminals that has occurred this summer cost our country – this just in – more than $2 billion (with a “b.”)
To America’s horror, the “stand down” orders by the liberal limp-wrists are totally and clearly to blame.
In Chattanooga it hasn’t been so bad but every bit as blatant; then the thugs caused damage at the County Courthouse and were photographed defacing a Confederate monument.
Just like anybody else who watched closely, President Trump had nothing to do with the carnage. Each and every time he tried to step in, he was rebuffed by the cowards. That’s a fact, Jack, to the point the District Attorney in Portland brazenly announced his office would not prosecute those the police had arrested. Mercy! A lot of elected Democrats should have been shackled for blatant “dereliction of duty” after giving their sworn oath they would act otherwise.
So, we watch New York – both “the Heart of America” - and Rochester and Chicago and Portland and Minneapolis and the weekly target practice in Chicago, and we grimace. We utter “Thank God that isn’t here.”
But it is my friend. … oh, yes, you are getting ready to pay for Democratic stupidity. You can bet your country music booties. Tennessee has a catastrophic problem in the very center of our state.
It has just been learned Nashville Mayor John Cooper wrote a hand-wrenching plea to Governor Bill Lee that Nashville needs an “emergency” $82.6 million due to the damage COVID-19 has done to our state capital. At first blush, we say “get in line.” Tennessee’s four largest cities have Democratic mayors, and all are money thirsty.
Yet the difference in Nashville is that “The Music City,” despite unprecedented growth, is on the very verge of becoming insolvent and being taken over by the state – you and me are part of that – and John Cooper is about to be recalled by an enraged constituency and run out of town.
That’s the message that then state’s Comptroller Justin Wilson laid at the feet of the Nashville City Council on Tuesday. Wilson, who has been before the Nashville council once before this year with a dire warning, told the Council that a very possible repeal of the Mayor’s outlandish 34 percent tax increase in December would saddle the city with a $332 million budget shortfall by mid-year. State law demands every city have a balanced budget.
Without the tax increase – due to the Mayor’s alleged wide-reaching incompetence – Nashville will go belly-up. Right now, Nashville’s cash-on-hand balance is tittering on five percent of the budget – about $120 million of the $2.4 million budget and a sure precursor to imminent failure.
Get this – in late August, a well-organized group of angry Nashvillians presented over 20,000 signatures demanding a special city-wide election in early December to repeal Mayor Cooper’s life-or-death 34 percent tax increase. I can virtually guarantee four distinct happenings in Nashville before the end of the year:
1) John Cooper’s cry for $82.6 million from the state in COVID relief will not happen. Governor Lee is well aware that Cooper’s lavish spending, his horrid response to the protesters’ “encampment” and rioting in Nashville have resulted in the Mayor becoming a very unpopular figure in Nashville. He is roundly being called the worst in our capital city’s history.
Governor Lee is most aware of the COVID suffering across the state and, pray tell, how can the Governor in clear conscience give Nashville $82.6 million while Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga are strained beyond their resources. How about Dayton, Shelbyville, Jackson, Murfreesboro, and Johnson City?
John Cooper is a desperate and most pathetic man and it is by his own hand. His fate is not Governor Lee’s problem … and it will not be.
2) There will most definitely by a Dec. 5 special election in Nashville. The result will be overwhelming. John Cooper will be ousted before his next appointment to have his teeth cleaned.
3) Over a year ago – this before COVID – the legislature was fully aware the state would have to intercede in Nashville. Because of Cooper’s rampant incompetence and his willful arrogance, state Comptroller Wilson told the Metro Council on Tuesday, “Metro will be kind of like a teenager coming to their parent asking for $20 to go to the movies," Wilson said. "You do not want that ... The cuts would be deep and painful."
According to the Nashville Tennessean, “The tax repeal, if approved by voters in a possible special election on Dec. 5, would be a blow to city services and could result in severe cuts to public safety personnel, as well as a nearly a 25% slash to the school district's budget, which Cooper outlined in a press release Monday.
“The city will be "unrecognizable," Cooper said to Metro Council Tuesday, warning of the lack of public safety protection, teachers leaving to work in surrounding counties and infrastructure needs languishing. The city's credit rating will go down, while borrowing costs go up,” the newspaper account read.
"Our progress as a great city will end," Cooper added in his rebuttal to the Metro Council Tuesday. "It takes the problem of financial weakness and makes it chronic and permanent."
Well … yeah.
4.) Nashville, our state capital will be added to the Democratic catastrophes in 2020. The difference in Nashville and other cities of ruin is that the state taxpayers will have to pay for John Cooper’s folly.
What, you’re not laughing at the parade of dunces who have been foisted by the Democratic Party upon us? Then add Tennessee to that $2 billion of money our nation will never get back. And it is all because stupidity was never challenged, no?
Vote wisely in November. When you do, remember this: (D) stands for “dunce.”
royexum@aol.com