Taxes in the Tribune
Rich Ecke lays out the argument about taxes, and I think he’s very fair about getting the numbers straight and not allowing the incumbents (or, for that matter, myself) to set a smoke-screen. Albeit he only gets around to this in paragraph 12 and onwards in his jumbo article, here.
Awkwardly, there are two different articles — one treating the City in isolation and and another comparing the county’s and schools’ tax hike to the city’s — but the latter (which is in a way more important) is seemingly not online. Why not consolidate both into a single, more crisply written article?
Some highlights:
- John Rosenbaum “said Friday morning that he had not had a chance to research the numbers.”
Let’s review. These very numbers were discussed at two different forums, and at the city commission meeting. The City staff went out of their way to provide Ramblin’ John with Talking Points — twice! And the guy should’ve been aware of the general taxation picture when he voted on the City’s 2010 budget months ago. But, no, no — he “needs more time.” We’ve got a bad case of wilful ignorance on our hands. Even if you think the man’s getting a hard time from us on taxes, he is simply out to lunch.
A full recap after the jump.
-Bob Jones & Donna Zook could not be reached for comment Friday or Saturday. Hmmm… Winters got a sphinx-like two words of his quoted: “What’s modest?”, doubting Bronson’s claim that nothin’s no biggie.
-Bill Bronson was by contrast voluminous, playing Guildenstern to the hapless Rosencrantzbaum. Rather than addressing the meat of the argument, he went after his critic — me!
“Mr Kavulla is a Libertarian,” Bronson said. “He’s very suspicious of all government. To the best of my knowledge, he hasn’t lived here for a few years.”
“This really is not about me,” Kavulla said…
Oooh, scary Libertarians, those people who just don’t see the innate virtue of increasing taxes by 30% over five years when everyone around you is spending more modestly. Naturally, the whole it’s-only-dollars-a-day theme emerges, but this misses the point. The City is draining $3.6 million more, representing a 44% budgetary increase, out of a community which has not grown anything close to 44% from 2003 to last year. That’s the bottom line. And as usual, Bronson chooses not to confront it.
-Refreshingly, the he-said, he-said syndrome is at least partially averted, and Rich Ecke actually ventures a factual assertion!
“Other taxing authorities have reduced the amount of mills they’re taking,” Kavulla said.
That’s true for this tax year, and it’s especially true for School District 1.
Oh my goodness. Stepping tentatively out of the fog, I do believe that Rich Ecke just got to the bottom of something, and Nick Daniels of the Graphics Dept. is especially to be congratulated for actually showing the City’s own numbers in graphic form. They show precisely what I have been saying here, that the 30.9% increase in City-collected mills stands in huge contrast 10.2% increase for the county and 14.1% decrease for the schools over 5 years.
I will work to see if this can be put online. Why should you listen to us blather when you can see the increase, and compare your county and your schools to your City Government for yourself.
Wow, Bronson going after a young, concerned citizen and ‘blaming’ him for being away? What’s next, call Travis a anarchist?
Travis has no credibility. He hasn’t lived here recently.
And, in all of the ’splaining about why taxes have gone up, no one mentioned that we’re bleeding money on the electricity venture. Willful ignorance is right.
I was very pleased to read a well-researched article about which both Mr. Ecke and the Tribune deserve to be proud.
Travis, keep everyone’s feet to the fire. Oh, does it bother you when someone uses a reflexive pronoun as a subject? Like nails on a chalkboard to me …
An ad hominem attack, rather than addressing the underlying issue, speaks volumes about how honorable Bill Bronson truly is, and more closely reflects his snarky and elitist attitude at Commission meetings that was so prevalent before he entered the race for mayor.
This article and the one printed in the Tribune, especially with the way Bronson acted drives my question of just where are some people seeing Bronson as an honorable person in an earlier blog post. The man will attack his opponents, will not stand up for what he has done, and does not care one bit about the people of this town, all he cares about is his own future, his run for mayor appears to be nothing more than a stepping-stone to higher office. Glad I saw through all his hot air and smoke and did not vote for him.