Anyone AGAINST Jobs?

The pro-MCC folks have spent a lot of time talking about the new jobs this will create. They can't get a finalized HVS study, and can't get their fuzzy math to add up correctly, so they are resorting to something no one is actually against - jobs.

Some Council members have correctly pointed out that the new MCC will actually take money away from essential services that are currently being funded by the annual hotel/motel taxes - about $14 million dollars. This is money that is currently being used to pay for police overtime, Metro and County Transportation costs, and subsidies to the Preds and the Sommet Center. The pro-MCC folks initially said they would have answers to where to find this money before trying to pass the bill. Now, they are saying "we'll figure it out" (AKA we'll raise taxes) come budget time in July.

So, to be clear, the pro-MCC folks would like to cut police overtime, cut metro transit (didn't they just cut this not too long ago?), cut jobs at the Sommet Center, and money from the Historical Commission, among MILLIONS more, in favor of primarily construction jobs. The Mayor's office won't tell us how many full-time, salaried employees this will create (not move from the NCC to the MCC). I think it's safe to assume many of the jobs will come from out of state (the General Contractor is from Maryland), and will be part-time. Jamie Hollin has done a good job of asking the right questions - specifically, how many job hires/contracts have we given to minority, women-owned, and disadvantaged businesses? The goal is %20, it appears we're around 5% currently.

So the question becomes, why do we favor speculative/part-time/out-of-state jobs over existing jobs? Does anyone have an answer?