Archive for January 26th, 2011

I’ll have more to say about State of the Union stuff on the morrow, but I just have to write about this, because it’s crazy. Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle is facing a recall vote because he has raised taxes. Omaha was facing an $11 million shortfall because of policies before his time, and people got pissed and wanted a recall. It’s stupid.

The election in 2009 was really close, and this just seems like their attempt to get him out before he completes his term. It sort of seems like sour grapes. I’m watching the news right now and some lady is saying this is the people’s turn to be heard, because their voice hasn’t been heard at this point. What she seems to be forgetting is that there was an election, and Suttle won. Then people want the budget balanced, but he inherited a problem. His response seems totally reasonable to me. From yahoo news:

The anti-Suttle effort picked up steam around a year ago when he announced plans to raise property taxes, charge a fee on restaurant tabs and increase a vehicle tax to combat a projected $11 million shortfall for 2011, largely because of policies by his predecessors.

As I write the tally is 28,351 against recall to 28,349 for recall. That’s right, the separation is TWO votes. There are loads of absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted, so this should be interesting.

Sorry to write about this and not the SOTU, but it’s pretty nuts.

Enjoy all the fun analysis.

Adam Feser