Thread by @kellycheatle

Regarding the legislation that #roc Mayor @realmalikevans sent to Rochester City Council:

This is the RDDC asking if we want pepperoni or pineapple on the pizza they already ordered as they reach into our wallet to pay for it.

@realmalikevans We have been sounding the alarm for months that this legislation is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Signing over the power to levy additional taxes on city property owners for the benefit of a few.

The only justification we have seen has been "other cities have them" or "but we need it!"

WHY?

Tell us why. Tell us what other options are out for specific goals, and why they aren't sufficient to meet specific stated goals.

This BID legislation is designed to be slid through under the radar as a benevolent and innocuous. It's not. It's a power grab.

It is not enacted on by public referendum. Consultants are going to figure out how to convince property owners to approve it. Well 51% of them. Actually property owner votes are weighted based upon assessed value.

What does that mean?

That means that folks that have bigger more valuable real estate holdings have a bigger say. The RDDC has been SURGICAL in the way they have pitched this. Saying it's "very democratic" because the "people who pay for it" can dissolve it at any point.

Instead the RDDC takes the long way around to avoid how they will design this district to ensure the majority voice that guarantees its perpetuity has the weighted votes of the folks with the most valuable portfolio.

Democracy is one person, one vote. Not one dollar one vote.

I want to thank City Council for doing their due diligence right now and holding off this legislation because they need more information. They need answers, a clearer assessment of the impetus behind it, what decisions were made by whom to get here, and who it would serve.

And I would like to thank the folks who pushed for transparency in government that have made sure that we have access to what happens in these meetings with Open Meetings Law and FOIL, that a BID would not be subject to.

And @RepKatiePorter and her whiteboard for inspiration.

And if, after those q's are fully answered, it turns out that everything is on the up & up, and the BID plan has a clear challenge it alone solves, if it can do so with minimal cost to the community and we don't displace residents or perpetuate racist policies of the last century

I'll throw a dang party and make a cake in the shape of a crow, and we can all laugh together and celebrate that we have the answers we need to make sound decisions for the community. The balloons will be epic.

and we can decide together if we want pizza.