Birmingham: A case study in poor leadership.

BACKGROUND: The sales tax increase, to last six years, is part of new Birmingham mayor Larry Langford's plan to generate $72 million annually to support initiatives including a domed stadium, mass transit improvements and an enhanced police department. The mayor proposes increasing the sales tax by one cent on the dollar and doubling business license fees to pay for his projects. Langford and the City Council met for more than two hours, mostly listening to owners of auto dealerships who said raising the sales tax by one cent on the dollar would make it harder for them to compete with dealers in surrounding cities and would put some out of business. An increase in taxes and business fees can make or break a car dealership especially in a region such as Birmingham. Why pay the extra money to the city when you can move just a few miles, pay less taxes, worry less about crime, and be in a modern, cleaner environment. As you can read below the mayor doesn't mind chastising the businesses he wants to fund his new Visionland. More on VisionLand.

MAYOR: to a legitimate concern of the city's car dealers: "It's not going to last forever. Suck it up with us just one time."
Councilwoman Valerie Abbott argued for the dealerships. Abbott said the smaller increase (.33% instead of 1%)would maintain the dealerships' competitiveness.
MAYOR: "That makes absolutely no sense at all,"

Ray Ingram, owner of East Lake Auto Sales, said he feared doubling his business license fee would be enough to put him out of business. Ingram said the license increase hurts small businesses like his the most. He said he pays about $10,000 a year for a business license and would pay $20,000 under the mayor's plan.
MAYOR RESPONSE: {he once sold cars} and knows that dealers make "a lot more money selling used cars than you do new cars."

Langford earlier had called for creating a Birmingham Rail and Transit Authority to handle the new transit money ($17 million), rather than turning it over to the BJCTA. But he said Monday that such details can be addressed later.
MAYOR: "At this point I don't know," he said after the meeting. "At this point I don't care."
The most important thing is for the council to approve the plan and handle the technicalities later, Langford said.

The mayor ran on a platform of "Change." These changes included a domed stadium. Why and for whom, nobody knows. The mayor just thinks we need it "to move forward." As head of the County Commission, Langford developed a reputation for having things his and only his way. The lack of want of details for the transit authority is a bad sign. The better scenario is to handle the details first and then proceed according to plan. Ask Hillary Clinton what happens when you set out to institute a plan and then plan the details in secret later.
He has been called bull-headed and to that I would add, callous. The above exchange highlights how not to respond to concerns from the people he was elected to represent. One should not respond with personal insults or immediate dismissals of ideas from others as done here. There is not one hint of compassion or empathy coming from the mayor to the car dealers who are actually doing Birmingham a favor by staying within the city limits. The attraction to move into neighboring areas is immense. I am afraid that additional taxes and fees will be "the straw that broke the camel's back." If this happens there will only be one man to blame.