notmymayor

It is cliché to quote Rahm Emanuel’s November 2008 contention that leaders should “never allow a crisis to go to waste,” but I do so today because Francis Slay understands this reality better than anyone in St. Louis City government. At present, Slay wants us to accept illogical and draconian budget cuts as the natural consequence of the alleged “crisis” that his actions precipitated. With no irony whatsoever, Slay blithely asserts:

In the last decade….the cost of pensions and health care grew from $18-million to $75-million, a more than 400% increase. Obviously, that was a trend that was going to have to be addressed no matter what sales and property tax revenues where doing. The economy made the problem more acute: and it gave the budget process a real focus…

I do not know about you, but I am uncomfortable with the notion of turning over crisis management to the person who caused the crisis in the first place. I am heartened to see at this early stage in the budget debate that the St. Louis Board of Aldermen’s African American Caucus, too, seems hesitant to rubber stamp budget proposals coming out of the Mayor’s Office. (The African American Caucus did also insist that the Ways and Means Committee of the Board of Aldermen hold its upcoming Wednesday, February 10 hearing at 6:30PM in City Hall Room 208 so that the public might attend.)

Healthy skepticism of Francis Slay’s motives is imperative, given that he views lawmaking at the local level as nothing more than a service provided to the highest bidder.

To this point, the pay-to-play with Slay habit manifests as follows:

1. A company or individual donates money to Slay’s campaign account.
2. Tax credits, tax abatements, and tax cuts accrue to the donor.

Pretty simple. In fact, I will go so far as to say that this process is logical. Donors lavish monies on Slay for Mayor under this paradigm, because they profit handsomely with comparatively little investment relative to the costs of earning a profit through a legitimate, market based means. The thinking goes, “Why bother to invest, when profiting through law is a lot cheaper?”

Now, how does pay-to-play with Slay work in an age of austerity?

As far as I can tell, it is quite similar:

1. A company donates staggering sums to Slay’s campaign account.
2. The City Department responsible for providing oversight for that company’s operations ends up on the chopping block in the next budget.

Easy enough. Companies–and Slay for Mayor–find ways to profit from city government in bad economic times as well.

Facility Emission Summary, Holcim (US) Inc. St. Louis Terminal, 111 E. Carrie Street, 2005 EPA Air Pollution Data, Map Courtesy of Google Earth

Back in early September when I wrote about my difficulty breathing in St. Louis, I had no idea that the Mayor would seek to reward Holcim Inc. for its more than $10,000.00 in campaign contributions with the complete elimination of the City’s Division of Air Pollution Control by Fiscal 2011.

Holcim Inc., in addition to operating the largest cement plant in the U.S. in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, also has a St. Louis Terminal on East Carrie Avenue at Hall Street, pictured above at the top left with the white arrow; (the Arch grounds are at the bottom right of the image). Related information about the Holcim St. Louis Terminal’s air pollution comes to us courtesy of the EPA’s “Facility Emission Summaries” Google Earth data set.

When Francis Slay advocates for Missouri to grant St. Louis City local control of the Police while simultaneously suggesting that Missouri assume all responsibilities  for air pollution control presently vested in St. Louis City regulators, you know that something is afoot. Hypocrisy is the surest indication of corruption, and that is why Francis Slay will never be my mayor.