Obama's Trade Representative Pick,Do You Know Ron Kirk?

Incase you don't know who Ron Kirk is,Obama's Trade Representative,let me fill you in a bit.During the time that he was over the affairs of Dallas,there were several City Council members convicted of bribary,selling contracts and other crimes.And he ripped the citizens off big time.

CHICAGO – Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk is president-elect Barack Obama's choice to be U.S. trade representative.

Kirk is a Dallas lawyer who was the first black to be elected the city's mayor. He's described by associates as a skilled negotiator who has worked well with the business community.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president John Murphy says Kirk has a "real-world appreciation for the importance of trade to the economy."

Kirk was chairman for Obama's campaign in Texas.

Okay that's what came out of Chicago,let's take a look at some things that came out of Dallas a few years back.

Ron Kirk claims he wants to do for the country what he did for Dallas -- bring us together. He can actually say that without laughing.

Just what did Ron Kirk do for Dallas? Ron Kirk got our city in debt, Ron Kirk divided our city and Ron Kirk lied to us. He lied almost every time he ever opened his mouth. He lied without one iota of embarrassment. Now, Ron Kirk's lying to the whole state with his campaign slogan that the morons who voted for him in Dallas "decided to put hope before cynicism and trust before fear."

Wrong! He turned us into a bunch of hopeless cynics who fear we can't trust anyone.

Thank goodness it had been awhile since my last meal when I saw Kirk's sappy TV ad. Christine Biederman of The Dallas Observer has an interesting article "Selling Ron", that is if you think there is anything interesting about this con man.

I had the displeasure of debating Ron Kirk on several occasions as the Treasurer of It's a Bad Deal!!. He is the meanest, rudest chauvinist I have ever dealt with. One Con Jerk trick is to say something so nasty off camera that you are left in shock when the cameras start rolling and he's sitting there ready for action. There are many rich, white ladies in town who have never seen the side of Ron Kirk I got to experience. If you don't have money, you are of no importance to Con Jerk.

During the arena campaign, Ron Kirk lied to us and he used former Mayor Annette Strauss. It was clear during that campaign something was wrong with Mayor Strauss because she did not do her homework and just relied on Kirk and Carol Reed for information about the arena master agreement -- and Ron Kirk lied to her. In one debate between Strauss, Laura Miller, Kirk and me, Miller said the players' salaries were included in the economic benefits being touted if the arena tax were to pass. Strauss held up an inch thick bound copy of the master agreement and said she had reviewed it, and the players were not included in the new jobs the arena would generate.

There was no way Mayor Strauss read that agreement because she would have known Miller was correct. Kirk and Reed gave Mayor Strauss a prop and told her what to say. Kirk knew better, but he let Strauss make the statement without correcting her.

Ron Kirk lied to us about everything in that campaign. He told us the ultimately lie by failing to advise Dallas voters that his wife held over $500,000 in stock options in a company owned by Tom Hicks while he was out on the stump campaigning to get enough dead people South of the Trinity to vote for the sales tax, so Robber Baron Hicks could steal $125 Million of our money to build a facility for his business -- not our business, his business.

Where's all the development we were promised from our $125 Million investment?

It was not enough that Ron Kirk lied to us about the benefits of the Arena sales tax. Just a couple of months later, he was right back at us lying through his teeth about the Trinity Project. If Dallas voters would just step up and vote yes to signing a blank check for a yet to be finalized plan for the Trinity River, he promised that billions in state and federal dollars would start flowing to us. There was another serious lie of omission on Kirk's part in the Trinity campaign. He failed to tell the voters that no one had done any testing to see if the pictures in his campaign brochures could ever be reality.

After the election, we learned we would be much more likely to have serious flooding with the "flood control" plans in the Trinity Project than if we do nothing and just buy out those poor people in Cadillac Heights.

Some citizens took the city to Court because the current plans are so removed from what Ron Kirk promised in the Trinity Bond election. The city's response to the lawsuit was that Dallas citizens/voters should not expect the city to be bound by anything said in a campaign brochure. The stupid Judge who is dependent on big campaign contributions agreed.

Those of us who do not want the Trinity River split into two concrete troughs with a fake lake/pond in the middle are seeing all of Kirk's carefully constructed web of deceit come unraveled. Not only will the Trinity Project not happen because it is physically impossible to do -- but the money is not coming from Austin or Washington, at least not enough or soon enough. No matter how much Senator Hutchison tries to assist her husband.

As Dallas Mayor, was Ron Kirk a fiscal conservative?
Statement by Peggy Venable, Director, Texas CSE

Contact: Tina Peyton
Phone: 214-696-2943 ext 101
Email: tpeyton@freedomworks.org

Dallas - At a press conference at Dallas City Hall today, Texas CSE director Peggy Venable made the following statement:

While he claims to have balanced the city budget (a requirement of the city charter), Ron Kirk left Dallas with a $95 million budget deficit when he quit to run for the U.S. Senate.

While he claims to have cut taxes four times, Ron Kirk increased City of Dallas expenditures from $693 million in 1995 to $1,022 million in 2001, or an increase of 47.5%. Taxpayers funded that growth through increased real estate appraisals and higher fees for city services.

While Mayor Kirk claimed to cut taxes, Dallas residents didn't see their tax bills fall under his tenure:

Property taxes rates were cut from 1995-2001 less than a penny – or .7 cents

While evaluations went up more than 60%

Meager property tax cuts didn't reach the pockets of the taxpayers...

Residents paid more for sanitation services, security alarm permits, water, and 911 calls

In 1997, Mayor Ron Kirk fought unsuccessfully during the legislative session for room to raise the city’s sales tax above the current 8.25% cap

As Dallas Mayor, Ron Kirk amassed one of the largest city budget deficits in the South. Yet that increased spending did not significantly lower the poverty rate in Dallas County, which went from 18.7% to 18% from 1989 to 1999. During the same period, the poverty rates in other counties in Texas dropped dramatically:

From 18.8% to 13.9% in Travis County

From 14.4% to 13.8% in Tarrant County

From 28.1% to 22.4% in Bexar County

From 11.7% to 5.4% in Williamson County

As Dallas Mayor, Ron Kirk oversaw some of the largest corporate welfare projects in the city's history and left taxpayers holding the bag:

1998 bond program totaling $543 million, which included $246 million to fund the Trinity River Corridor Project

DART $2.9 billion Bond Campaign

Mayor Kirk supported a $4.7 million tax abatement for New York Life Insurance Co which created only 11 new jobs

Kirk supported a “nearly $4 million tax break to the downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel”

In 2000 when the Council approved a $6.2 million in tax breaks for businesses, Mayor Kirk said, “This is a good day for all of Dallas.”

Even veterans of the Dallas budget battles have cited the significant budget shortfall as unusual.

”. . . Wasn't it just a short while ago that Dallas was gearing up to make its big pitch to host the Summer Olympics in 2012? Didn't the Dallas public library recently celebrate its 100th anniversary by unveiling a new master plan that would cost $50 million? Wasn't the planned opening of the Nasher Sculpture Center next year going to be the inspiration for major downtown improvements?

”. . . I am a 30-year veteran of these annual budget deliberations, and there are proposals in this package that have sent chills up even my spine.

”. . . It is amazing what a $95 million shortfall can do to budget planning and to the hopes and aspirations of a city like Dallas.”

-- 08/14/2002 By HENRY TATUM / The Dallas Morning News

In 1997, Mayor Ron Kirk pushed for higher taxes and fought unsuccessfully during the legislative session for room to raise the city’s sales tax above the current 8.25 percent cap.

The result of Kirk’s sloppy financial management is that Standard & Poor’s downgraded outlook of the city’s AAA credit rating from stable to negative.

As a Senate candidate, Ron Kirk claims to be a tax cutter but has called President Bush's tax cuts "irresponsible."

Taxpayers deserve to know where Ron Kirk stands. Will the real Ron Kirk please stand up?