A tale of two headlines

There were two headlines last week that should have caught the attention of Anchorage voters.

One, in the Anchorage Daily News – “Anchorage paid to power nonexistent streetlights, missed out on savings from LED bulbs” – topped a story about how a city audit found Anchorage has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in over-payments for electricity every year.

The second, on KTVA’s web page, “Anchorage Assembly delays decisions on sales, alcohol tax ballot measures,” was over a story about how Assembly members want more time to mull sales tax proposals before deciding which – not if, mind you – to put on the ballot.

Count us among those who wonder why our betters would even toy with the notion of having us pay sales taxes – something voters have repeatedly have objected to in recent years – when the city can piddle away hundreds of thousands of dollars a year erroneously and not notice something is amiss until an internal audit.

From where we sit, perhaps the next headline should be “Assembly decides against sales taxes, calls for forensic audit of city finances.”

That would be a headline we could embrace.