...when a stash of 300 unused, brand new electric vehicles purchased five or six years ago gets "discovered":
Miami-Dade County…was recently reunited with 298 vehicles it bought brand new between 2006 and 2007. The county "discovered" this fleet of no-mileage vehicles after reading about them in a Spanish-language newspaper there. Most of the misplaced motorcade is made up of Toyota Prius hybrids whose warranties either expired with very few miles on the (odometer) or will very soon.
The vehicles were purchased during the mayoralty of Carlos Alvarez, whom voters in the struggling, low-wage county voted overwhelmingly to recall last year for fiscal abuses that included using public money to purchase a new BMW for himself (he already had two official vehicles), "showering favours and pay hikes to his (personal) staff", and raising property taxes on homeowners at a time of plummeting property values.
h/t ∞ ≠ ø
If the msm does not scream the party affiliation in hte headline, you can be sure it is the 2 + 2 is 489 party. Numeric illiterates 'r us.
When I first saw the headline my thoughts were - VOLTs?
My favourite part is:
"The county 'discovered' this fleet of no-mileage vehicles after reading about them in a Spanish-language newspaper..."
So many levels of 'huh?' in one sentence.
Decadence on a grand scale. You have to wonder why so many paper pushers are employed, when they can't even keep track of 300 new vehicles? Having to find out from an obscure magazine? No wonder the West is going broke. Between hordes of "public servants with insane benefits, Mayors who can't stop spending others money.
A huge greedy monster of a government on all levels
A small cauterization.
"In both mayoral elections, he listed his party as "No Party Preference",[3] although an article in the Christian Science Monitor described him as a member of the Republican Party.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Alvarez_%28mayor%29
And from everything I can see the 'Monitor' got that bit wrong.
..."lost his seat Tuesday in a recall vote after raising taxes and boosting the pay of public-sector union employees....he raised property taxes for two-fifths of the county's homeowners by 13 percent, while increasing pay and unfreezing some benefits for public-sector employees. The unemployment rate in Miami-Dade County is 12 percent....
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0316/As-recall-wave-builds-Miami-Dade-Mayor-Carlos-Alvarez-first-to-go
Back to Wiki...
"in 2004 a group of policemen who served in the department described his management style as marked by "favoritism and retaliation".[6]
He's a clone of Rahm Emanuel.
Tanx EBD :)
At least those cars had no carbon foot print.
I am surprised Horatio Caine wasn't all over this one. Yeahhhhhhhh!
a&c, where do you think those electric cars got their charge from?
From powerplants, either evil nuclear, evil hydro, or evil coal-fired. Their so-called "carbon footprint" is simply emanated by the power plant, rather than by the car.
So, for the mistaken psychological comfort of idiots willing to pay 50% or more than an equivalent gasoline-powered car, they get their comfortable illusions and the ability to look snidely down their noses at all the other cars, and car owners on the road.
(Oh, and BTW, there's no such thing as a perpetual motion machine, either. Or the fabled urban legend motor-industry-squashed motor and transmission that lets a car get 50 mpg. And Elvis has definitely left the building.)
Wups@ that's 500 mpg. My bad.
A@c was being sardonic.
sardonic? oh the irony...
do parked cars git infinite mpg!!!!
As someone who works hard for what I earn it is no wonder I am so pissed when I send in my income tax return. This kind of thing just deepens my anger. Then I hear Obozof_ckup telling all those who don't pay ANY income tax that we who DO - are not paying enough.
Isn't it time that those of us who do pay taxes become THE OCCUPIERS????
While I would not defend all of Mr Alvarez's actions, the mention of the BMW is tabloid journalism. Perhaps the Mayor should not be receiving an $800/month transportation allowance; fair enough. But whether he spends that money toward a new BMW or toward oil changes for his K-car or toward passes on the local transit system and Greyhound would, I think, be his business.
@ Roseberry
Really?
"It's easier to ride through decaying neighborhoods of unemployed constituents when you've got a sweet-ass ride."..."Because Alvarez had the foresight in September to protect his car allowance even as he was cutting 1,700 jobs to close a $444 million shortfall, he'll presumably keep the same arrangement for his hot new GT model."
Heh,more here:
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/05/county_mayor_carlos_alvarez_bi.php
It gets better:
"Update: NBCMiami says the car involved in the crash is a $75,000 2010 BMW 550i, paid for, in part, through the county fund."
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/07/mayor_carlos_alvarez_involved.php"
oh here's more:
"Alvarez earned an annual salary of $233,124. His benefits were:
• $10,000 Executive Benefits Allowance annually
• $7,200 annual car allowance
• $42,000 annual expense allowance
• $1,500 retirement account
• $8,135 health insurance
• $22,000 deferred compensation
For Alvarez, that added up to $323,959
http://www.politifact.com/florida/promises/carlos-o-meter/promise/956/cut-mayors-salary-and-benefits/
again: Really?
Thanks for the heads up. As a resident of Florida(not Miami-Dade), I sent a copy of this on to the governor and the attorney general, suggesting they might get some political mileage out of looking into this.
Won't be holding my breath. An investigation might make some voters upset, and we can't afford that. . .
The only way we're going to get rid of corruption is to start shooting incumbents, as soon as something like this comes to light. Pretty soon, the incumbents will learn to be more careful, and we citizens can go back to being our usual ignorant selves.
Isn't Miami-Dade where all the dumb-O-crats screwed up their hanging chads in 2000?
Seems about right.
mhb23re
300 toxic batteries and one toxic mayor to take to the dump.