Wilkowski, whatever will we do with you?

Bob Franz nailed your problem squarely on the head in one of the latest issues of the Toledo Free Press. He noted that after 3.5 years of watching Jack Ford collect his paycheck and do absolutely nothing for it, that YOU stood mutely by that career politician (i.e. "elite thief"). When you saw a chance to run for Mayor, suddenly you popped up and denounced Ford for years of inactivity.

Well, that's too little, too late, Wilkowski. You're obviously another Democrat opportunist (like nearly every other Democrat running for office in Toledo) who is just trying to get on the same paycheck train Carty and Ford were on.

Let me tell you something, Wilkowski: Toledo isn't a springboard for career politicians with delusions of advancement. It's also not a paycheck for do-nothings.

I looked your silly little website over, and was laughing out loud. You've got a lot of political-speak (designed to get people to vote for you, but also designed to avoid making any concrete promises), but are utterly devoid of useful information. Where in your little plan did you mention reducing Toledo's expenses in this time of economic collapse? No, you didn't mention THAT little necessary point even once.

Your "Turnaround Plan for Downtown Toledo" is a complete (almost plagiarized) rehash of the same failed policies and bribes that Toledo has run for over 10 years. The only thing this is going to do is reward some cronies ... then the taxpayers will pick up the increasingly onerous tab.

The "economic district" fraud (happening downtown as we speak) is a poster child for what's wrong with your "turnaround" plan. You can't tax yourselves into prosperity. When income drops, and you refuse to increase your tax base from the economic engines of businesses (note: yet another Toledo problem), then your only sustainable choice is to REDUCE SPENDING.

Toledo's checkbook has run dry. It had to happen since people like you paid no attention whatsoever that the balance was dropping fast, and that a checkbook is NOT a credit card.

(O-I knew that little fact full well, and didn't even bother entertaining your list of possible bribes. O-I knew that Toledo is broke and has no prospects of regaining sustainable income from taxes and fees. Would YOU believe a street bum if he promised to get you a couple $100 bills? No, I didn't think so.)

Wilkowski, Toledo is heading for receivership. Your so-called ideas once again defraud the public into thinking that "somebody" will pay for all the implementation of said ideas. But that can't happen. Taxpayers are still facing an incredible debt load from the continuous run of failed bribery attempts that I laughingly call "downtown development". This debt load is rising like a tsunami wave, where it will build to a critical height that will wash away much of Toledo's cultural energy (i.e. Toledo will fall into receivership (BTW, just as Columbus's vicious Republicans have planned it)).

Wilkowski, unless you start using the magic words "DOWNSIZE THE TOLEDO GOVERNMENT", I just can't take you seriously. Like Carty, you apparently think this is still the 1990s when interest rates and savings rates were falling, producing an immense financial bubble that was felt in the stock, credit and finally housing industries. But the margin has fled, along with too many Toledo businesses, and so your spend-spend-spend training is only going to produce catastrophic results. I've already predicted that if Carty wins the election, in 2007 he will have a nervous breakdown in a critical council meeting, where he is likely to start sobbing uncontrollably as he curls into a fetal position under his chair. You may not develop such a reaction, since Carty is clinically crazy and you at least seem stable -- but you'll have to face the same thing Carty will face in 2007: Toledo is broke, can't pay its bills, and has no prospects for increased income. Like Carty, you are not equipped to face a time of scarcity. Like Carty, you have no discipline to make hard, necessary decisions. Instead, you hand the public the same "economic development" cheerleading that has destroyed whatever recovery efforts Toledo could muster.

Wilkowski, until you demonstrate that you understand economic law, YOU'RE DISMISSED.

P.S. If I hear another politician say "economic development" one more time, I'm gonna scream. Politicians obviously don't understand economics -- since they don't put spending under control, and continue to allow income to dry up from endless tax abatements. So, they basically suck at economic development. Let the real workers and capitalists develop the economy.

You had your chance with Rick Grafing. He was marginalized from the start. Toledoans continue the delusion that career politicians can enact change such that a sustainable economy returns to the city and county. Toledoans don't take non-politicians seriously. This is the Tragedy of the Common (no, not "Commons"), since Toledoans don't even believe in their own worth, hence haven't been caught dead voting for one of their fellow workers or businessmen.

Of course, I'm hoping that with enough of a collapse, Toledoans will finally snap awake as they shiver with bone-deep cold while they stoke a fire under some bridge in Toledo, and say to themselves:

"Maybe voting constantly for career politicians has produced these dire conditions."

DUH.