| The naysayers are at it again.
Roy Brown - a fine man, I hear - is swinging through the state raising the specter of new taxes:
"A lot of people are concerned about the increase in spending, especially when you tell them it's about 40 percent," Brown said over coffee Wednesday morning.
"Nobody wants to raise taxes to pay for this new spending."
What Brown - a fine man, I hear - fails to mention is that no one actually raised taxes to cover the largely one-time spending increases, neither the state legislature nor his gubernatorial opponent, Brian Schweitzer. In fact, we got a tax rebate. Indeed nobody wants to increase taxes.
Brown - a fine man, I hear - also said that state residents "have expressed concern over their property taxes" and want a solution to "escalating property taxes." As if on cue, Kalispell's John McMenian has written a proposal for a ballot initiative to cap property tax increases at 1.5 percent a year.
Montana, meet e. coli conservatism!
Perlstein uses the term to describe the effect of depleted government funding on the FDA's ability to protect Americans from bad food, which is a representation for the larger effect of the last generation of Republican slash-n-burn tax cuts and cuts of vital government funding. Like for bridge inspection and repair, say.
The truth about rising property taxes is this: property tax increases are often levied by local government polities in order to make up the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that have depleted their school budgets. That's also why you've seen so many increases in college tuition.
But Brown - a fine man, I hear - and his e. coli pals want to cut, cut, cut. Never mind that we're facing some heavy infrastructure needs like, say, Missoula's aging schools, let along that pesky court mandate to adequately fund the state's schools. Never mind that most Montanans realize the reality of taxes: they actually pay for stuff we want, and need.
But then, tax cuts are the answer for everything! |
