The elections are well underway, and the plate is piling high with campaign promises, in both the council and mayoral races. There are good, noble, smart campaign priorities out there. John Jones' crusade to bring wireless Internet to Jackson, for example, needs some serious attention, no matter who ends up taking the mayor's seat.
However, some of the candidates' boasts represent the time-honored political policy of talking out the side of your neck. Many candidates, both mayoral and council, seem to think that money is going to pour out of the bottomless cornucopia of Washington to the needy hands of Jackson if they can only get themselves into office.
Please be realistic. So far, there is no federal program that's going to permanently pay every city cop's wages. There may be a program to hire more cops, but that money—at least so far—is temporary, and the city will have to eventually take up the payments themselves.
The same goes for the city's demolition budget. We've heard candidate after candidate claim they're going to tear down dilapidated homes at a fevered pace, even though the city's budget is probably working about as fast as it can at house demolition.
Other candidates' claims, such as their pledge to single-handedly get more police on the street can't be very realistic, at least if they're running for council. A council member may not—at least not legally—arbitrarily transfer money in the budget to another aspect of the budget, such as the police budget to fund more cops. The mayor sets the budget, and the council gets to tweak it, but only a majority of the council may approve the resulting budget.
That last bit of information is important, because several candidates seem to think they'll steer the cash wherever they choose after the election. Checks and balances don't make that entirely easy, otherwise many would be tempted to steer it into their bank accounts.
This does not even include calls from some candidates to upgrade council member's positions to full-time jobs, or the call to dispense entirely with JATRAN or to finance blanket pay raises for every city employee.
While modern democracy allows just about anybody to jump into the game, the important debate on how best to work with Jackson's problems will never get seriously underway if candidates keep muddying the field with empty promises just to rile up voters. Know what you're running for, and have realistic conversations about what you can do in office. Otherwise, you're doomed to fail us.
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