Written by Michael Palomba
As you may remember, MTS CEO Paul Jablonski was recently given a massive $36,000 bonus in addition to his $520,000 annual compensation package. All of this is paid for by taxpayers, of course. But it gets better.
Now, MTS is working towards a possible ballot measure to raise the sales tax by a half-cent to generate an estimated $24.5 billion in tax revenue. Three public webinars are being held this month to present the plans for ElevateSD, which the tax revenue would be put toward. It includes a new trolley line to the airport, free rides for students through high school, more frequent bus and trolley service, and a few other changes.
The webinars are 45 minutes long and participants can submit questions as well as respond to online polls.
The remaining webinars scheduled this month two are:
Thursday, Feb. 20 at 9:30 a.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 5:30 p.m.
This measure proposal may sound totally benign, but at the end of the day, we would all have to pay an increased sales tax to subsidize something that only a tiny fraction of the population will use. In addition, after discovering that the CEO gets paid over 16 times the median income of the average American, I don’t think MTS needs anymore of our tax dollars.
I also believe that $24.5 billion could be better spent in many other areas, such as homelessness or border security. You know, things that actually benefit all of us rather than a select few.
