Monday, June 14, 2010

"He's Down, Kick Him Again!"

...Or so says a letter-writer in the local NewsPulp, addressing BP's refinery along Indiana's Lake Michigan shore. --And never you mind that they've sunk millions into ongoing modernization projects, nor that Indian's own IDEM isn't affected by the ongoing mess in the Gulf of Mexico.

Next up (linklessly, they wanna sell ya newsprint; it's their content, after all): Fran "Tax Me Harder" Quigley on the property tax "cap" some most of us are hoping to get added to Indiana's State constitution. Our resident anti-gun bedwetter loathes the idea; after all, he asserts, "property taxes are actually fair to most citizens," though he offers nothing to back that up. That'd be unfair to some, Fran -- I thought you were all about fairness, or are some tax-bearing animals less equal than other? He omits that school boards are not bound by the cap; he shudders to think the state might charge user fees or raise sales taxes. Nope, he wants to tax something you can't easily change, something you may, in fact, not be able to escape at all unless you're willin' to sleep rough and live light: the roof over your head. ...Or the former roof over your head, if you can't bear the increasing property-tax burden. It got out of control, Fran, and now it's being (partially) limited. And what vexes you most is, now it can't be used to enact your cripple-the-successful version of "social justice." Awwww.

6 comments:

Paul said...

We pride ourselves in my town on education. My property tax bill is about 2,500 per anum. 2,499 goes to the local school district. I still have one child in their tender mercies so I can't get too totally livid over the bill.

They were surprise when the latest bond referendum for the additional school they needed to build (in case) was voted down. They will be back.

Joanna said...

On primary day, I got accosted by someone touting Proposition something-or-other -- it would be good for the schools! It would keep our property values high! (This is in Carmel.) It was a property tax increase. I voted against it.

Anonymous said...

The sorry truth is when they say "It's for the children", they mean it's for themselves. On the average, about 2/3 of every dollar in our public schools is spent for administration, compared to 8 to 10% in private & parochial schools. Worse yet, school districts often short-change the children when budget increases are not approved so the administrators can continue in the manner to which they've become accustomed. This is outright corruption and where is our much lauded media?

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Even more important than the property tax cap: The three-way wallet-hoovering that goes on in this state -- sales taxes, income taxes, and property taxes -- has GOT to stop. Pick one and lose the others. Sales taxes would be my choice -- then EVERYBODY pays.

But they'd have to cut spending first, and as long as The Hair is speaker of the House, that ain't a'gonna happen.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

BTW, it's online. You just have to look for it.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20106140305

Roberta X said...

Thanks, Nathan! The paper usually waits awhile to put up the link. Free is slower; their paper, their content.