Edited sentence: Birmingham's city council is often ridiculed for outlandish behavior in local independent news outlets.Despite city and county occupational taxes, which contribute to the flight of businesses "over the mountain," Jefferson County (which houses Birmingham) recently enacted, with no public hearing or vote, a 1% raise in sales tax to fund yet another bond for education.Much of the lack of public services can be attributed to money wasted in inept bond deals designed to benefit friends and family members of city and county officials.The city has also been saddled with an enormous sewer repair bill, which resulted from a surprise verdict from a judge sympathetic to a local environmental group, the Cahaba River Society.The constitutionality of the tax increase is currently being challenged in the Alabama Legislature