Never believe anything you read on the internet. I mean absolutely nothing. Don’t believe this. Read it, but don’t believe it. Not a single word.

At tonight’s Town Hall meeting, the second in a series of fifty or so, I was unfortunately labelled a propagator or misconceptions and half-truths. I said the City of Ypsilanti took one for the team when we said yes on roads a few years back and raised taxes to pay for our crumbling roads. As a result, when the State finally had money to spread around, Ypsilanti was ineligible for funding because we had already spent our own. State Representative Alma Wheeler Smith as well as Ypsilanti City Manager Ed Koryzno said that I was incorrect. Mr. Koryzno even went so far as to question who was spreading these misconceptions.

Well, apparently I’m the guy spreading those misconceptions. What I should have said was that a few years ago, Ypsilanti residents taxed ourselves and increased fees to fix and upgrade our SEWER and WATER. That’s what I should have said — sewer and water. Anyway. The bottom line is when the State came around with water and sewer money, Ypsilanti was ineligible because we had already spent our own. That’s true. That’s fact. I also learned that Ypsilanti is now eligible for that water and sewer money again, but it’s not a grant, it’s now a loan.

Admittedly I do feel on the dumb side because I made a mistake that allowed everyone on the panel to ignore my question and focus on my mistake, but I don’t feel that ignorant because even the politicians were so caught up in being politicians that they made mistakes too. In an effort to take some cheap shots at President Bush, Senator Liz Brater made a factually incorrect statement about levees and then went on to make referrence to the notion that the response to Hurricane Katrina was so slow because the current administration has made government too small to effectively serve the public. The truth is that George Bush increasd the size of the federal government more in his first two years than Former-President Clinton did in his first six years. Regardless, I’m not here to split hairs. I made a mistake. I apologized. I’m supplying the correct information. And I still dont’ know what levees have to do with Ypsilanti.

The mood of tonight’s meeting was somber. The expert panel said over and over again that Ypsilanti’s financial crisis wasn’t their fault. I believe them too. They said they are working hard for us. I believe that too. They also said that no one could fix our problems but us. They said we had to decide what was best for us, but receivership was a very bad idea, the City couldn’t cut their way out of the problem, and the State couldn’t bail us out. By my count, that means they indirectly recommended an income tax.

Thanks a lot guys.

I’ll fill you in on specifics tomorrow. I have some new misconceptions to spread. You’re never going to guess what I overheard tonight.