Once again, the City of Marietta is out of sync with the needs of its citizens and current economic realities. The first blunder occurred in 2003-04 when city officials caught a bad case of housing speculation fever and adopted an aggressive "Build It and They Will Come" redevelopment program. The mayor and council established 20 percent of Marietta as Tax Allocation Districts, created the Marietta Redevelopment Corp., and placed it under the management of a real estate and land development cartel eager to play monopoly with taxpayer money. This group sold key pieces of public lands at bargain prices to land developers while paying top dollar for housing and commercial properties for developments that never panned out, leaving PVC headstones jutting from abandoned land.

That the city spent only an estimated $40 million to $50 million on TAD bonding, lines of credit and supporting infrastructure projects is due to MDJ editorials, a private lawsuit, government inefficiency, the search for a new MRC director and the collapse of the credit market. It remains to be seen how many years and how many tax dollars it will take to recover from a city government that created more problems than it solved.

Today, contrary to economic reality, this same administration has rushed to increase bonded indebtedness and hike utility rates while its citizens are cutting back on personal consumption and making other sacrifices to reduce household debt. Last year, the city council allowed the Marietta Board of Lights and Water to increase its public debt to $1.2 billion by investing in nuclear energy at a time when power consumption is stabilizing, conservation efforts are being aggressively promoted, the BLW is losing many bread-and-butter customers and has a chronic negative cash flow now amounting to $7 million.

Marietta taxpayers are also burdened with a $25 million parks bond, a Downtown Marietta Development Authority hotel bond, repackaged as capital improvement debt, rapidly increasing utility bills and more property tax.

City officials keep saying the cost of government is low, but this price tag must be considered in light of tax-dollar waste, stagnating wages, rising health care and educational costs, increasing fuel and food prices, federal and state taxes, etc., in order to measure the financial current American households are swimming against.

Not since the rule of kings has government been at such cross-purposes with the best interests of its citizens. Taxpayers will have to sacrifice necessary purchases over the coming 20 to 40 years to pay back government debt. Payments will take the form of utility hikes, property tax increases, and increased government fees, licenses, penalties and fines.

The city of Marietta has already turned into a predatory government, leaning on small business about illegal signs and balloons and picking rental property owners to death about the condition and color of their buildings. The city recently increased the budget by $15,000 to cover rising collection agency expenses. Hopefully, these hired-gun delinquent tax collectors will go after the banks holding all the repossessed TAD project properties before they go after citizens on fixed incomes.

The small businesses that survive the government onslaught and competition for credit will pass the increased cost of government on to households, driving up the cost of living. High public debt will also contribute to job loss as small businesses continue to disappear due to the rising cost of government, energy and commodities.

Who should be blamed for a dysfunctional, predatory local government? Look in the mirror. Only 15 percent of Marietta's registered voters turned out for the recent election. The $25 million park debt passed by a margin of 59 votes. Only three of the seven council seats were contested and two wards recorded less than 200 total votes cast. Essentially the same City Hall crowd of quasi-professional government milkmaids will continue making spending and policy decisions for Marietta for another four years because of voter apathy.

Larry Wills is a retired recycling consultant.