Another Lone Dissent by McIver, This Time on the Council's Economic Recovery Plan

Most City Council votes are formalities, clocking in at 9-0. But occasionally, there's a dissenter. A couple months ago, it was Richard McIver, who said he voted against a land transfer bill because he hadn't had the chance to review it. Yesterday, it was McIver again, though this time he had more substantive reasons.

The Council passed a 19-point economic recovery plan, which had a heavy emphasis on supporting small business. Among other things, the plan ordered the Office of Economic Development to conduct a "Buy Local" marketing campaign, and cut B&O taxes. McIver, though, wasn't sold.

"One, I think many of the things on there are in the process of being done now. And two, it strikes me that we're taking over the administration of some offices and we don't know if they have resources [to do what we want them to]. We don't know if we have a marketing expert in OED. We didn't talk to them. They already have a work plan; they've already committed to a budget. We could've done all that by having them submit a [new] work plan to us. But we're trying to take over the administration of it and that's the mayor's job. I didn't know we're in the business of running departments."

McIver wasn't hot on the tax cuts either: "Here we are in an economic downturn, eliminating taxes. These same Councilmembers, when come it comes time to make a budget, they're going to want to fund social services. When you say no, they won't say what they want to cut."

The bill's primary sponsor, Council Pres. Richard Conlin, concedes that the Council doesn't know whether OED will be able to conduct the campaign, but says it will go ahead regardless. "We'll be organizing it, and the neighborhood chambers [of commerce] are very enthusiastic about it."

On the subject of revenues, Conlin says "[McIver's] right--we are giving up some revenues in order to stimulate the economy. But we're not giving up a lot -- the total amount of revenue we're estimating is $800,000."

As for whether the Council is stepping on the Mayor's toes, Conlin seems unconcerned. "There's always that tension there. We feel like we need to push."