2016-03-22 – Rahm is at it again! (And we thought he was different from the Daleys.)

These politicians don’t want to take the heat for taxes. And they don’t want to end the graft in city spending. They sell city revenue sources like street parking and squander the proceeds.

Then there’s no money.

So they create new revenue sources. Since taxes are out, they create penalties. But unlike taxes, penalties don’t have to fall equally on all citizens. We create a class of “scofflaws” out of thin air and hound them to pay their fines. “Fines,” not “taxes,” is what they say. One day a motorist who hits the brake one second too late at an intersection is an upstanding citizen. The next day, the motorist is a scofflaw and shouldering the burden of city deficits.

But it’s not enough.

This week, Rahm Emanuel and his crony alderman have proposed an ordinance that would fine city dog owners for not cleaning up dog poop on their own property. The ordinance proposes a schedule of fines that goes from $50 to $500.

$500.

They say it is to fight against rats. They always have a reason. But at $500, it’s just another revenue stream.

I clean up after my dog. My pockets are full of poop-bags-at-the-ready. But I could be hit with a fine if someone else’s dog passes my way and I don’t notice it in time. Neighbors are going to become hypersensitive to dog walkers who pass their homestead.

This is a rat-abatement ordinance? I don’t think so. And you know that enforcement is going to be spotty (no pun intended) and discriminatory—a tax without the requirement that it apply to all citizens.

And once this new revenue stream is established, Rahm can sell off the poop-bounty rights to one of his cronies for a paltry sum.

#chicago #dogs .@RahmEmanuel .@jesuschuygar