MAYOR HEALY LAUGHING (OUT-OF-VIEW, OF COURSE) ALL THE WAY TO THE - POLITICAL BANK? VOLUME 6 OF CANTON FINANCIAL MESS SERIES

Master politician and political manipulator Mayor William J. Healy, II was at his finest on February 8, 2011 at the first of a series of monthly forums (which, the SCPR predicts, will last through April, if he is defeated by Canton Councilman Bill Smuckler in the May Democratic primary).

One of his favorite political whipping boys has been the Canton firefighter and police unions.

He has been on a mission to "right-size" Canton's safety forces for a good part of his term which began on January 1, 2008.  However, he has been unable to accomplish his mission and police and fire account for a major, major part of the 82% of Canton's budget devoted to personnel costs.

On the surface Healy presents a picture of compatibility with major unions.  However, barbs breakout periodically between the Mayor and Rosario Carcione of the firefighters and Bill Adams of the Canton CPPA.

One of Healy's political tactics that he is most accomplished at is to bring the irrelevant or nearly irrelevant into discussion.  In the video that follows, he brings up the topic of whether or not Canton will have to ante up more of a share of the pension contributions mandated by Ohio law for firefighters and policemen.

Rosario Carcione, president of Local 249 International Association of Firefighters, can be heard challenging Healy on the accompanying videotape at the February 8th meeting at the Canton Civic Center on Healy's assertion that there is a serious chance that Canton will have to pay more from city coffers on fire and police pensions.

Another play by Healy in irrelevancy or near irrelevancy is on his dissertation on a "possible" scenario in which the Ohio General Assembly "might" not reimburse property tax collecting entities on 12.5% in rollbacks on property tax bills.

Well, Canton has an income tax; not a property tax.  So why bring that up?  Because, according to Healy, such a move would preclude Canton - in terms of political practicality - from raising taxes.

Hmm?

The Report thinks the "political practicality" of raising taxes is non-existent whether or not there is a change in the reimbursement scheme to townships and school districts by the Ohio Legislature.

But leave it up to Mayor Healy to stretch, stretch, stretch to make his larger point (major premise) with unsustainable "supportive?" (minor premises) points.

Take a look for yourself, here is the video.