Mitt Romney's La Jolla house has drawn the most attention for the lavish renovations and car elevator the Romneys plan for it. But AFSCME is highlighting the voices of workers who serve the mansion, including Richard Hayes, seen above, who collects trash on Romney's street, a former trash collector, and a fire truck maintenance worker. Romney, of course, has campaigned on cutting public jobs.
It's not just a campaign tactic, either. Marcy Wheeler details how Romney repeatedly appealed to lower the property taxes on this multi-million dollar house he's planning to make even more lavish and expensive. Romney's initial claim was that the house had lost 45 percent of its value in less than a year; he ultimately scaled that claim back, but still got his taxes lowered—the taxes that pay for things like garbage collection and fire truck maintenance:
This amounts to Mitt, buying a pricey home at a time when any half-witted being knew home values were crashing, turning around almost immediately and asking for a discount for buying at a time of falling values. But for a county struggling with the effects of banksters ruining the wealth of its much more average residents, it amounts to a real churlishness about the common good.Come to think of it, "a real churlishness about the common good" could be Romney's campaign slogan. And when he loses this race, maybe he could have it inscribed over the door to the La Jolla mansion once the car elevator is installed and the renovations are completed.