A couple things I don’t like about government accounting have been gnawing. One is the City of Asheville’s New McKibbon Standard for hotel development. The logic goes something like: City council, via a conditional use hearing, can appropriate resources from developers – that would have gone toward creating living wage jobs – so government can support its programs to create living wage jobs. And, for the sake of any lefties out there reading this, McKibbon does pay living wages already, but the $250,000, to use council’s words, “exacted” for the city’s affordable housing trust fund, could have helped a private-sector designer create another gorgeous jacket like McKibbon was wearing, or maybe improve the quality of food used in McKibbon kitchens, or maybe help support the hundreds who design, engineer, manufacture, sell, or ship things like the refrigerator and stove for McKibbon’s next yacht.
The second is the idea that government is entitled to more as wages diminish in the private sector. Rather than commiserating and leading by example as we all tighten our belts together, government notes people are losing 20 percent of the value of their largest investments, their homes, and so taxes will have to go up to keep government whole. Here are some numbers from the Jackson County reval.
