When economic times were good throughout much of the 1990s – “good” times that, Americans now know, were largely based on corporate shams and political debauchery – governments from sea to shining sea basked in the glow of full coffers. Liberal paternalists and their allies in the RINO – Republicans In Name Only – Party created new programs and expanded old ones at a pace that suggested leaders local and national believed the golden rainbow would never fade.
Except that it did – as it always does.
Now, caught in an economic web of their own making, local and national leaders are scrambling to find ways to pay for all the largess they created. Programs outweigh available dollars, and while beneficiaries don’t quite yet outnumber the wage earners and wealthy who support them, the ratio is certainly a lot lower now than 10 years ago, when the “boom” really began in earnest.
One way the socialist tax-and-spenders are using to refill their coffers is by punishing anyone who owns or rents a place to lay their weary heads at night.
As reported Tuesday, the U.S. Census Bureau says Americans paid 10.4 percent more in property taxes for the year ending June 30 compared to the same period a year earlier – an increase that was the highest since 1993, the first full year of the Clinton administration.
Taxes for the first half of this year were up 14.1 percent compared to the first six months of 2001, while second-quarter taxes skyrocketed 24 percent compared to the first three months of 2001.
Some areas are worse than others, but generally speaking, the issue is widespread. And, experts say, tax-and-spenders in other parts of the country are preparing to soak their constituents as well.
“There are probably 60 to 70 cities of 100,000 population that are contemplating it today,” David Brunori, editor of State Tax Notes, a non-profit publication that tracks tax trends, told USA Today.
Some of the increase stems from higher property values – a good thing for land and home owners. However city, county and local governments also are raising tax rates to balance their budgets in the face of declining revenues due to the lingering recession.
Earlier this month New York City approved an 18.5 percent property-tax increase, while neighboring Westchester County, N.Y. – considered one of the wealthiest – is examining a 28.6 percent hike.
In Atlanta, meanwhile, officials hiked rates 50 percent this year, while Minnesota expects to increase rates at least 10 percent in 2003.
Some neighborhoods in Chicago have seen property taxes increase 75-100 percent. Coupled with utility increases, some rents have reached record levels. And Wisconsin raised property taxes 5.36 percent and 4.98 percent in 2001 and 2002 respectively.
“It is unfortunate that homeowners are being asked to bear the brunt of irresponsible spending policies,” Peter Sepp, of the National Taxpayers Union told the paper.
Agreed. But even more egregious is American taxpayers’ lack of widespread outrage over those who have made a career out of redistributing wealth from those who earn, deserve and are productive to those who don’t earn, aren’t deserving and are unproductive.
Supporters of this approach say property taxes, which account for an average of 70-75 percent of a municipality’s income, are a necessary funding mechanism. Costs for fire and police protection, ambulance service, garbage collection, dog catching and street maintenance rise annually – a city has to have money to provide these essentials.
Fine. But what irks taxpayers is the wastefulness and lack of planning endemic in most government operations. Expanded programs, raised salaries and new expenditures do not go away when money is tight.
The problem is the same on the local and national level. Too many politicians think they must do too many things for too many people. Yet when government performs a function, it costs money that must be extracted from anyone who earns a wage. It’s a simple concept but obviously not enough of us understand it.
Until we rid ourselves of tax-and-spend politicians, we’re going to be stuck financing tax-and-spend politics.
