Jackson Jambalaya

Bull. Yarber proposed raising taxes because he doesn't have the desire nor the 'nads to cut the budget either. Now, it's convenient to blame his lack of leadership on the council's possible squeamishness at cutting the fat. He should step out and proposethe tough decisions that need to be made or shut up and keep doing what he's doing, which ain't much. Let's hear him talk about the contingency plan, because raising taxes is a bad idea.

The size of Jackson government today is not the same as it was when the city had a population of 200,000. It is larger.

spending brings political favor which comes back. No one wants to interfere with that. Also, taxes mostly affect businesses and larger homes. Most of their voters may not even pay property tax or at least very little.

EXCELLENT SUGGESTIONS!! This must be read out loud to the city council at their next meeting!

Should have Enoch Sanders read these suggestions at the next city council meeting. He's got influence correct?

WoW! Great suggestions Kingfish!
Wish you were the Mayor. But, Alas that will never happen because you are white. Great comments 12:46 PM,1:51 PM,1:56 PM,2:15 PM.

And I'm going to go tell my boss that I need a larger salary because I can't control my spending - oh wait...

We all know that the suburbs hate Jackson. They resent the leadership that has made one bad decision after another, they sneer at the crime that has been allowed to continue unabated, and they mostly laugh at the public school system that is a far cry from acceptable. However, it is time to recognize that Jackson, (yes, poor, pitiful Jackson) is the great hope for the State. Nice shopping centers in Ridgeland, baseball fields in Pearl, Corinthian columned Walgreens in Madison exist because Jackson was/is the political, economic and geographic center of the state of Mississippi. It still is, and it's time to recognize that it likely always will be.

Mississippi is never going to be more than a punchline unless we focus on making our largest metropolitan area more desirable. Want to tout "music" tourism in Mississippi? Then make Jackson a better starting point than Memphis. Want people to travel to historic Natchez or Vicksburg, make the Jackson area a better place to travel to. Want to finally have some larger conventions here, make Jackson a travel destination.

And that's just tourism. If you ever expect children in Mississippi to have a Zoo worth visiting, museums worth learning in, or events worth attending; they aren't going to be in Madison. They're already here.

It isn't easy, and the path ahead isn't clear, but there are too many examples across the country of revitalized and gentrified downtown areas that show that it can be done. Until then, come downtown and dine at Saltine, one of Bon Apetit's 50 best new restaurants. Take a brewery tour at the Jackson area's only brewery at LuckyTown. Check out the state's largest art Museum downtown then walk over to Parlor Market for fantastic drinks and dinner. Finish the night at the landmark Hal & Mal's or Underground 119.

If you don't have an altruistic bone in your body, do it because Jackson's growth is as important to the people in Jackson as it is to those in Madison, Ridgeland, Pearl, Flowood, and Rankin. Show the State politicians and outside businesses that the Greater Jackson Area is important enough to invest in. A rising tide lifts all boats.

What is the current population of the COJ?

What is the current population of the COJ?

Surely you can look it up for yourself.

August 19, 2015 at 2:56 PM = Blah, blah, blah, blah. Jackson is the "great hope". Blah, blah, blah, blah. BULLSHIT.

@3:29 And where would begin building a centralized area of development and prosperity? I welcome your proposals on how to lift Mississippi from the bottom of every meaningful metric.

Agree with @12:46 PM. Yarber should have put the right-size govt budget in front of the Council with no property tax increases from the outset and forced their hand. His punting in advance because the Council lacks the stomach rings hollow.

hey 3:42pm, I'll tell you where to begin and it won't be cultural crap. You gotta walk before you can run, and the infrastructure of this town is a joke. Fix that first. Kingfish points are all good except for one: you don't need a large public works department when you have NO budget for asphalt, concrete,...etc. What are they gonna do, lean on their shovels? Jackson has something like 1200 miles of road but their budget for road materials is around $1 million. It was around 10-15 million 20 years ago, which was paltry then. Wonder where THAT money went.

so how is reconstruction working out for everyone? It would be fun to watch the total stupidity of the City Council if I didn't own a house in NEJ. Not real funny now. I will give Ashby this...he gets an A for patience in trying to explain 2 + 2 = 4 to folks that are all products of Jack Pub School System.

Fixing Jackson lifts "Mississippi from the bottom of every meaningful [education] metric"? Get real. What about the shoping centers, baseball fields, etc on the Coast, up in Desoto County, in Oxford, Starkville, Hattiesburg, and many points in-between. Do they exist because of Jackson? And why are you only mentioning downtown Jackson? Throwing good money after bad into downtown has already proven to be a monumental waste. The Convention Center is a colossal red ink mess. When Jackson starts making the really hard and tough decisions to turn itself around then give us a shout. Until then spare us the We-Need-Jackson holy chorus claptrap.

1. Close the golf course and sell the land to a private entity for development. At the minimum get the land back on the tax rolls.

2. Don't put another plug dime into the Zoo. If it can't make it without taxpayer subsidies then it needs to close. It is a shit zoo anyways and not remotely close to current zoological art. No city regionally Kingfish is going to get involved in the Zoo and fund it until it moves from that location and you know that. Period.

3. You can't run a bus system that only collects 10-15% of its operational expenses through fares.

4. Privatize the customer facing aspects of the water system. Meters, meter reading, billing, A/R, collections and 1st/2nd tier customer support. Put a private company in charge and the damn money is going to get collected. Disconnect the lines of repeat offenders at the main in the street if necessary.

5. Get the city out of public cable television programming. If whatever fees received from Comcast aren't enough to cover the bills then shut the channel and studio down. Don't spend another penny on PEG.

6. Stop sending glossy Jackson magazines to households. Yarber is using those mags to self-advertise his wonderfulness and mugg like the f'ing statewide Republicans use their budgets to get their names repeated ad nauseum on Supertalk.

7. Migrate to metered garbage service. Small business owners are bringing some business generated garbage to their houses to be picked up essentially for free. There is business owner living IN EASTOVER who has been doing this for at least a decade.

8. Fight idiots like David Blount who on one hand bemoan the State owned tax free properties that hurt Jackson and then on the other lead the legislative effort to have the state purchase even more properties like the Wright & Ferguson Funeral Home last session. YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYs BLOUNT.

As for Kingfish and "get it off the books". Kingfish, you reduce the operational expense but those assets continue to not generate any property tax dollars.

True. I said my list was a place to start. I'm looking more at the expenses as they recur rather than revenue gained from one time sales.

Never seen a city need an independent municipal utility commission more than Jackson

My position continues to be that Jackson is the only thing more dysfunctional than the Legislature, which should take over Jackson, appoint an administrator responsible to the Leg, and get to work. No sillier than many other suggestions.

The Zoo is not 'city operated' which I believe is one of their many problems! Its time the COJ stop bailing them out every time they go broke! Its also time they start paying their damn water bill just like other businesses!!! From what I hear, they owe well over $1,000,000 alone & have yet to pay a water bill since the new director came in!!!!!!!

"City planning department, which includes economic department, presented its $34.5 million budget." (From the Jackson Free Press.) They have an economic development director and City of Jackson planning director. Maybe the directors need to be directed or justify their positions.

9:07 - to adapt the old joke, if you owe the water utility $1000, you have a problem; if you owe them $1M, *they* have a problem.

Bravo, Kingfish. About time someone said what needs to be said.

The city delegates the operation of the zoo to a non-profit by contract.

@2:56 I see you're catching some hell. But WTF. The problem with your post is that Jackson is not all that important to most of the people in the state. This is an economic center because this is where Flowood, Madison, Ridgeland, and Brandon are. It is not a cultural center at all. Folks in the northern part of the state have Memphis and vicinity. Hattiesburg and Laurel are more culturally tied to New Orleans and Mobile than Jackson. Jackson really doesn't matter to most folks in the state. The handful who have government business dread coming here and get away as quickly as they can.

Finally...I live in the suburbs and I don't know anybody who "hates" Jackson. Some people are scared of it. Some exasperated with it. Some sorry it turned out so badly for it. Some just laugh at it. And most people are some of all of the above. Jackson will never revive. The taxpayers from around the state are gonna have to pitch in to help pay for some of the infrastructure (which is somewhat fair in the downtown government area...but is really NOT fair since if it were not for government business most people would never visit the hell hole). But a city whose tax base in insufficient to pay for routine maintenance and repair of vital infrastructure is dead, dead, dead. No hope.

Sorry.

I have to agree with 10:49. Nobody is going bail out the entire city. The State building infrastructure is logical, but residential streets and business are a City responsibility, as is the crime problem. There are way too many homicides that are now classified as "domestic problems." In the 40's, 50's and 60's it may have been a Cultural Center, but that is long gone and will never be replaced. Jackson desparately needs diversity to survive. They don't need a smug "I told you so attitude," but they must be willing to listen and cooperate with their neighbors. Have they ever asked Flowood, Brandon or Madison to ride with their police force to see what they do differently? Have they bothered to look at how billing is done for water and how trash bills are managed, along with tax collection. Maybe they can incorporate another LOCAL towns successful ideas into their own system. They just have to stop trying to be so independent. Giving them money is not an option, showing them how to do things successfully is. That's if they will listen to suggestions and why they work.

What about Smith Robertson? If there is a useless money sink in the city, it's that place. I don't know who funds it, but the city should cease to send money to an empty building that is nothing more than a JPS field trip destination. I'd love to know what the budget is for that place vs what the monthly visitor figures are. Forget the budget issues. Do it simply because it would be fun to watch Donna, Todd, Tom Head, and the other person who posts at the JFP all go into a frenzy of racism accusations. I think Tom Head's head would explode if Yarber stopped funding SR.

2:56 pm is absolutely correct.

A State capitol is supposed to be the crown jewel of a State .

A State capitol will never be relocated. It is not feasible and never will be.

As a result, most State legislatures support their capitol cities and the cultural and historical entities that exist in their capitol city, but not us.

Most States have zoos and museums in or in close proximity to their capitol cities that the State supports. They see that as culturally important for the young people in their State. Schools , both public and private, have field trips to those locations.

Most States do not have the duplication of services and competition for limited funds that exists between county government and city government that we have in Mississippi!

The Hinds County budget is $111 million for goodness sakes!

In Mississippi , we seem to want little government fiefdoms where we duplicate government and can't ever take advantage of economies of scale nor can we cooperate on anything for the benefit of the State. And, at the same time we supposedly want smaller government!

That most of you don't know what a mayor can and cannot do is obvious as well. And, that is a huge part of the problem. Did you look at the budget for the city of Jackson? Did you know the mayor has already cut employees and benefits by 2.6% his first year and that the budget's been cut 21% ? Do you know what he can and can't cut without the city council's cooperation?

Do you know how the budget is changing in Madison or Ridgeland?

It's important to know how government functions and how government should function and to look at how your elected officials are spending money!

That way, you don't get snookered with political nonsense all the time!

let's start with the legislature taking over the Airport authority, now would be the time to trade Yarber & Co. a little something and make it so you can fly in and out of Jackson.

The dog is loose and dumping on the neighbor's yard again.

2:56's perspective is spot on. Mississippi is dropping further and further behind our peers in the Southeast, much less other parts of the country in virtually every metric. Mississippi is at the bottom of the list of places in the US where college graduates want to locate UNLESS you are from here. That's reality. Jackson is the doorstep for Mississippi whether you like it or not. There can be a collective effort to make Jackson better or we can accept that the State is NEVER going to get off the bottom...Simple as that. There are too many people around here that are simply ignorant about what's going on in other cities in the US or they just don't care about their Capital City. We've always been backwards, and it really shows with this 20th century mentality about Jackson.

** FALLACY ALERT ** FALLACY ALERT ** FALLACY ALERT

There can be a collective effort to make Jackson better or we can accept that the State is NEVER going to get off the bottom...Simple as that.

Slippery slope FALLACY.

** FALLACY ALERT ** FALLACY ALERT ** FALLACY ALERT

And everyone keeps lookig over the fact that Jackson's leadership, which includes the sitting Mayor, decided to line the pockets of Seimens, not to improve the water system, but to line the pockets of those that were aligned with Seimens. Talk about how that money grabbing bogus contract has impacted the budget. Talk about how these horrible overinflated contracts that have excessive fat built into them for the payment of undertable handout to political supporters and politicians is impacting the budget. Talk about how the citizens are bearing the cost of someone getting illegally paid for services not rendered. Talk about that. That alone could put the city back on track from a budgeting perspective.

2:56
Saltine is in Fondren and Lucky Town is in Mid-Town, not Downtown. Don't know much about the city, do you?

@ 11:22 - Don't the facts get in the way of a good story.

Looks like the City Council has called Tony Baloney's hand.

KF, please see Melvin Priester's budget plan on his City Council FB page.

2:56 is correct.

2:56 is incorrect.

2:56 is absolutely correct.

2:56 is absolutely incorrect.

Well, well, well, the white racist are in rare form on this site! The Hood wearing KINGFISH is leading the pack. If I thought a logical and reasoned explanation for Jackson's issues, including those belonging to Jackson's "SOMETIMES" failed leadership but more having to do with a city written off by the state once it became non white, we might have an intelligent conversation. Maybe this STATE is a loss cause because of the level of denial, illogical thought processes and a "NEVER GONNA HAPPEN LONGING FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF WHITE DOMINATION AND CONTROL. All you REVISIONIST BIBLE THUMPING RACIST WILL ONE DAY DIE OFF AND MAYBE THEN THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI MIGHT BECOME MORE THAN A JOKE AROUND THE WORLD AND EMBRACE "ALL" OF ITS CITIZENS OF ALL RACES AND ETHNICITIES.

3:06- Jackson should try this. Take race completely out of the equation. Exclude those that include strong religious beliefs into a solution. What do you have? Flesh and blood PEOPLE at one table who are willing to work together. Jackson insists on working alone. They refuse to ask for assistance from neighboring counties or the state unless there is cheap or free money attached. If advice is given from neighboring outsiders, it is viewed as not being in the interest of the people. The City continually chooses to embrace only Black Culture over diversity, to the point Major Corporations pick other locations for their expansions. This has been shown by the 20% hiring mandate that's always thrown on the table. The city insults its own citizens by saying You Must Hire Our Residents. Ever think that the companies, on their own, would hire more than 20% based on skills and the way the applicants represent themselves? It is very common in other cities to just "walk away" or "leave" when faced with self serving attitudes. It's gotton old and the word is out that Partnering with Jackson and even Hinds County is a fruitless endeavor. It has to be "Their way or the highway." Over the years and even in the present day, Corporations chose the highway, along with the thousands of people who have relocated to surrounding areas. Only when the attitude of Jackson changes will the city be able to compete with anyone but themselves.