Have we looked beyond the headlines into the
significance of the slogan,"No new taxes?" Who came up with the idea,who
promised strong political support in return for a pledge from a candidate for
Governor? The answers to these questions will tell us a lot about how this
came about and what we can expect in the future if the party and our Governor
remain in power.
"No new taxes" is appealing to every taxpayer and
every taxpayer believes, first, that his taxes are too high and secondly, that,
at the very least, his taxes will not go any higher. What are the facts?
Government, you and I and all the rest, is a pooling of our resources to decide
what we want to do and to determine how we will pay for it. In this case we are
referring to our State government. Do we want government aid to public
education?-----support for our elderly and our indigent, to the handicapped and
disabled, to our transportation network, roads bridges etc., our criminal
justice and law enforcement systems. Ah, yes, everybody supports these
initiatives. But who do we want to shoulder the burden? That's
the rub. The Governor and his majority party says, "We made a pledge and we
intend to honor it, No new taxes!' which tells us, we are not opposed
to supporting it but we made a pledge, ergo, if you want it and feel it is
important, do it yourself .
The problem, as I see it, is that some smart
politicians are taking advantage of our system of taxation.Our property taxes,
unlike income tax or sales tax are not uniformly applied across the State.
Instead, we have a conglomeration of local units added together, each of whom
determines their anticipated level of expenditures.
Valuation times mill-rate equals tax. Our state
determines that valuations across the State are about equal. The needs of each
taxing unit determines their mill rate.
Thus, although valuations are fairly applied, mill
rate varies widely, primarily because much of our industry and commercial
activity is concentrated in small enclaves.
If you own property valued at $100,000. and
pay property tax of $435.00, your friend in a high valuation district could own
a home valued at close to $2,000,000 and
pay the same amount of property tax. The rationale
of the no new tax proponents is, we earned these benefits,let's not disperse
them across the State to our less
affluent brethen, let us enjoy what we have
earned.. If they want to do something, let them do it on their own.
Comments?
Evert Salo
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