[Winona Online Democracy]
It is difficult for most people, including
most elected officials, to understand levies, total tax capacity and the other jargon
that is used and become the standard answers for addressing local property
taxes.
Rather than looking at revenues people
should focus on expenses since it is spending that drives the need for
revenue. We would hope that government doesn’t first seek to
maximize revenue and then look for ways to spend it. The tax performance
of all elected bodies should be based on the expenses of one year in comparison
to the prior or proposed years and anything that exceeds the rate of inflation
reviewed with great intensity and scrutiny. While major capital projects
can muddy the water if they are always in the budget then they to should be watched
as well as they can reflect a practice of spending that may also need controls
or tempering. The failure to control the expense budget means that
taxpayers are keeping less for their consumption and savings and that
government is growing. Watching the amount of spending and in particular the
percentage of growth or retraction in expenses is the real measure to judge
performance of local officials not tax capacity or the market value of property.
Once the people judge those officials on
what is being spent year to year will they again control the increases rather
than being confused to the point of their abandonment of the process. Referendums
outcomes may reflect more the frustration of the process rather than the need
to solve a problem.
Paul Double
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_______________________________________________
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