In 1996, voters in Hamilton County approved an increase of half of one percent in the sales tax that promised to build and maintain stadiums for the Bengals and the Reds, pay Cincinnati’s public schools and give homeowners an annual property tax rebate. The stadiums were supposed to spur development of the city’s dilapidated riverfront.
But sales tax receipts have fallen so fast in the last year that the county is now scrambling to bridge a $14 million deficit in its sales tax fund. The public schools, which deferred taking their share for years, want their money.
The teams have not volunteered to rewrite their leases. So in the coming weeks, the county plans to cut basic services, lower its legal bills and drain a bond reserve fund with no plan for paying it back.
Setting aside the fact that public funds are being used to create a system where more people sit on their ass and WATCH sports, instead of creating a system where more people get off their ass and PLAY sports, I fail to see any reason why public funds should be used in order to make private citizens wealthier.
Seriously, people who allow their entire week to revolve around what millionaires do on Sunday need to get a grip. But if that’s what they choose to do then whatever. There is no reason that I need to be forced to subsidize this behavior and help make Ziggy Milf richer however.
Sure, we can hang around and wait for 300 local cycling enthusiasts to plunk down $1000 each and then wait for the state to kick down another $200k, find the land, build the facility and find the funds to hire a manager…
Or we can all just relax and wait a bit until I get hit in the head by a meteor from outer space and I will build a new velodrome in my backyard using my brand new super hero powers.
I’ll let you guys use it all you want…for a small user fee.
In an effort to reduce my absurdly large AT&T mobile phone bill I have backed off my monthly minutes from 900 to 450. I have never used more than 450 minutes in a month anyway so I save myself $20. Plus I have over 6000 rollover minutes to burn through should I ever blow past 450 minutes in a month. But that’s not going to happen.
Why?
Skype. I plan on using this service a lot more from my iPhone.
I already use Skype on the iPhone pretty extensively while I am at home connected to the WiFi. But due to AT&T locking users off the 3G network for VOIP I have not been able to use Skype while I have been away from a WiFi network.
Until now.
VOiPover3G allows those with a jailbroken phone to use the AT&T 3G network with applications like Skype and Fring.
In order to be approved by Apple and AT&T these applications had to come with a “switch” that would disable their use in any situation other than WiFi. VOiPover3G simply disables the switch and tricks these applications into thinking that they are still on a WiFi network.
I tested it out tonight and it works great. So now I can use Skype on the road instead of using up my precious AT&T minutes that I never really use that much anyway.
This is a personal web site and does not represent the views or policies of my employer. If you come across an item that you happen to find offensive then you have not been reading long enough because there are lots of things that are offensive on this site. Sorry…
