Nathan Hopper

With the flair and fashion that smacks of arrogant aristocracy, the Brookings City Council?and particularly Mayor Virgil Herriott?have adopted the attitude that anyone opposed to the flagrantly unfair Third-B tax Just Doesn’t Get It.

“There’s a lack of understanding why or what we’re going to do with it,” said one council member and reported by the Brookings Register regarding the allocation of Third-B funds.

A lack of understanding? Hardly. Try: A lack of support. A paltry one-week prior to the April 30 vote, commissioners are just now deciding how to spend the money. Apparently, they’ve already assumed that this will pass. This is not Chump Change here. This is not a $20 bill found on a floor. This is Real Money.

The immense issue of “How can we spend all of this student-funded tax?” should have been resolved long ago, not a week prior. It’s one thing to procrastinate on an English paper. But it’s an entirely foolish and arrogant affair to procrastinate on the minutia of a $260,000 tax.

In deciding how to spend the money, the city feels confident that it can turn over the riches to the Unelected, and Unaccountable Convention and Visitors Bureau. I’m greatly amused at how the city has become a grocery clerk sent to pick up the bill. What a fantastic double dip: collect the money from activities paid for by many students?prepared food and alcohol?and then give the money back to the businesses who collected it so they can promote themselves.

No sooner did the City Council express its bewilderment at the possibility of being $260,000 richer than did the Brookings School Board explain why it would have to cut special education and borrow money from other programs. With a projected deficit of $70,000, the schools are in trouble, but Brookings City Council members and the mayor seem only concerned with bringing more Car Shows and Religious Conventions to town?college and high school student be damned.

Is one more billboard or one more radio ad for the Brookings Arts Festival worth $8 per SDSU student per year? On April 30, go to the polls and reject a tax that you must pay on your meal plans. Reject a tax that the city does not even understand. Reject needless expenses and extravagance. Don’t allow city government to brazenly ignore repeated and sustained complaints from students. Vote No.

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