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Taxing Us out of House and Home

by Conservativity Staff,
Originally Posted: 12/3/2004 3:29:06 PM

In the online edition of The Christian Science Monitor, Ron Scherer writes of the continuing struggles of many people as they are faced with ruin from hideous property tax hikes.  In some areas such as Madison, WI, the tax rate is lower but the property values are rising so fast that yearly assessments still bring an increase of over 5.4 percent year-over-year.  Madison’s mayor, Dave Cieslewicz, is a proud elite leftist, who is now decrying his windfall as a "regressive" tax, which is being used to replace "progressive" tax sources.

"I have a news flash for the mayor of Madison:  All taxes are regressive!"

I have a news flash for the mayor of Madison:  All taxes are regressive!  Taxes are, when not used solely to support the bare minimum possible governmental influence in our lives, inherently penal.  In some areas where there are skyrocketing taxes, the revenues are being used to build and staff schools needed to accommodate the student load from urban sprawl.  I live in one of those areas, in Will County Illinois, and have seen a 100% rise property tax rates in the last six years.  This is due to construction costs for the new schools, which is fair enough, but it is also penal, inasmuch as these schools are overburdened with too may highly-paid central office administrators, at the expense of both the underpaid teachers and the taxpayers.

In Madison, they cut the tax rate but still let the taxes go up over 5.4%.  Does the aggrieved leftist mayor suggest a tax rebate?  Of course not.  He’ll find some liberal program or another, probably not a core governmental function, upon which to spend the windfall.  People rumble of a tax revolt, but, after Howard Jarvis and Prop. 13 in California, the states with initiative lawmaking have acted to short-circuit such direct democracy.  That is ironic, since direct democracy is a more liberal invention, in line with the "one man one vote" system that ultimately leads to the tyranny that libs love.  In Illinois, where I live, the ability to cap taxes via initiative does not exist.  With the liberal political machine in Illinois, a tax revolt has about much chance as a small mouse in a large cattery.

So, as property values blue state urban areas rise, we’re watching the most responsible of us be taxed out of house and home -- literally.  The liberals in charge do not care; they think of the money as their own.  These taxes are used to support all sorts of "programs" and "services" not contemplated by the founders and not ratified by the People.  By their nature they penalize achievement.  Our hope of relief comes not from the scions of government deigning to allow us to keep more of that which is ours; it comes instead from the People, who have had enough and will vote out the taxophiles and replace them with honest people who believe that the governmental snout does not belong in the food bowl of the people.