If you go to City Council a lot, as I do, there is a familiar ritual. Someone from theChamber of Commerce or another one of the many groups that advocate for big business testifies about why business taxes should be cut or why the city should not be spending more on education or city services. It is the same old, what’s good for business is good for everybody, trickle down, politics and economics that has driven us down for decades. But, fortunately, Wilson Goode, is on hand.
Goode doesn’t make speeches. He just relentlessly questions these folks, drawing out all the concessions that they have wrested from the city over the years. He speaks up for the people who have been victimized by these policies. He is an old fashioned populist who thinks corporations are getting favored treatment.
And it’s not just words. Goode has gone after tax abatements to fund schools, supported reforming the use and occupancy tax to make big business pay, backed the sick leave bill, endorses of the fight for fifteen, calls for an elected school board, and condemned the SRC for voiding the PFT contract.
It’s not surprising big business has him in the cross hairs and is spending a lot of money to take him, and other progressive incumbents down. We can’t let that happen.
There are many good new people running for Council including Helen Gym, Sherri Cohen and Isaiah Thomas, who we should be supporting, but we need to make sure incumbents like Wilson Goode are retained.
