Deadbeat Serfs
Usually these days when we think of deadbeats, we think of lay bouts or those who don’t pay their child support on time. Of course, we’re not the city of Indianapolis, or the thousands of other cities and towns in the great state of Indiana. The County Auditor for Indianapolis/Marion County just sent out their regular property tax bills. The big story, in this time of ever increasing bills, governs the percentage that are expected not to pay. Currently that is around 2%.
So what’s the big story? Well, of course those 2% who don’t pay will either have to eventually pay with heavy fines or their land will end up in a tax sale. That’s fair isn’t it? I mean, if you’re not paying your fair share, shouldn’t you suffer a penalty? Shouldn’t you lose your land to the state if you don’t pay them for potential services rendered for the year? Doesn’t that sound as ridiculous as could be?
This is an old grudge of mine, and anyone who’s read more than a week’s worth of my little posts knows I HATE property tax. I’ve campaigned against it. I’ve written volumes about the injustice of it. And I pay it, regularly. Perhaps that contributes a bit to my hatred for it.
That we have to pay to keep city and county governments running is not the issue. Perhaps that is lost in all this, but I’m not objecting to any part of that. Although I think oftentimes cities and counties live well beyond their means (I mean, their examples are the State and Federal bureaucracies, what are they to do?), and should really learn to live a little more lean and mean, but there are better ways, much better ways to assess fees than property tax.
As I’ve noted before, in debating the current, Republican, County Auditor locally, she claimed that such notions of eliminating property tax were naïve because it is such a reliable and efficient source of funds. She made my argument for me. Of course, when you have a reliable means of getting capital, you’re going to be less likely to explore riskier alternatives, but her argument missed the mark entirely.
Property tax is bad as a revenue source precisely because it is so reliable. We don’t need reliability. We need liberty and property tax doesn’t give us that. If we are reliably and efficiently enslaved by a system that can so easily take away our most basic right of property, is that liberty? Is it worth it? Can any of you honestly sit there and tell me it is? If you can, then I’m sure you long for the days of Stalinist Russia as well, and I likely can’t reach you. But the rest of you should feel a sense of outrage, as I do in paying that god forsaken bill every six months.
A simple search through the internet can find several states exhibiting what they did to eliminate property tax. Google is an amazing thing. You’d think the cities and towns of Indiana would have an equally easy ability to do a little research or perhaps even use the old noodle and come up with some ideas in a good old fashioned brain storming session. But, when things are so reliable and steady, who needs alternatives?
They’re thinking of themselves when they answer that question and not of you or me, the average taxpayer. We’d more than happily pay for services through user fees. Some of the best programs out there are run that way. Having to pay this way, by either forking over the dough or losing the land and home you’ve put blood, sweat, and tears in goes beyond un-American. It’s inhuman. It’s not difficult to say, in fact it’s rather easy to say that if you’re for property tax in its current incarnation, you’re against liberty.
The right of a person to be secure in their property without threat of government intrusion or theft is a fundamental, God-given right and one more people should recognize, especially as home ownership rises. At times like these, more than ever, you must remind your elected representatives that this is the case. You must remind them that your liberty is not negotiable or expendable in the name of convenience and reliability. Remind them that such thoughts will often lead to the unreliability of their keeping their jobs. That’s your power in this debate.
Usually these days when we think of deadbeats, we think of lay bouts or those who don’t pay their child support on time. Of course, we’re not the city of Indianapolis, or the thousands of other cities and towns in the great state of Indiana. The County Auditor for Indianapolis/Marion County just sent out their regular property tax bills. The big story, in this time of ever increasing bills, governs the percentage that are expected not to pay. Currently that is around 2%.
So what’s the big story? Well, of course those 2% who don’t pay will either have to eventually pay with heavy fines or their land will end up in a tax sale. That’s fair isn’t it? I mean, if you’re not paying your fair share, shouldn’t you suffer a penalty? Shouldn’t you lose your land to the state if you don’t pay them for potential services rendered for the year? Doesn’t that sound as ridiculous as could be?
This is an old grudge of mine, and anyone who’s read more than a week’s worth of my little posts knows I HATE property tax. I’ve campaigned against it. I’ve written volumes about the injustice of it. And I pay it, regularly. Perhaps that contributes a bit to my hatred for it.
That we have to pay to keep city and county governments running is not the issue. Perhaps that is lost in all this, but I’m not objecting to any part of that. Although I think oftentimes cities and counties live well beyond their means (I mean, their examples are the State and Federal bureaucracies, what are they to do?), and should really learn to live a little more lean and mean, but there are better ways, much better ways to assess fees than property tax.
As I’ve noted before, in debating the current, Republican, County Auditor locally, she claimed that such notions of eliminating property tax were naïve because it is such a reliable and efficient source of funds. She made my argument for me. Of course, when you have a reliable means of getting capital, you’re going to be less likely to explore riskier alternatives, but her argument missed the mark entirely.
Property tax is bad as a revenue source precisely because it is so reliable. We don’t need reliability. We need liberty and property tax doesn’t give us that. If we are reliably and efficiently enslaved by a system that can so easily take away our most basic right of property, is that liberty? Is it worth it? Can any of you honestly sit there and tell me it is? If you can, then I’m sure you long for the days of Stalinist Russia as well, and I likely can’t reach you. But the rest of you should feel a sense of outrage, as I do in paying that god forsaken bill every six months.
A simple search through the internet can find several states exhibiting what they did to eliminate property tax. Google is an amazing thing. You’d think the cities and towns of Indiana would have an equally easy ability to do a little research or perhaps even use the old noodle and come up with some ideas in a good old fashioned brain storming session. But, when things are so reliable and steady, who needs alternatives?
They’re thinking of themselves when they answer that question and not of you or me, the average taxpayer. We’d more than happily pay for services through user fees. Some of the best programs out there are run that way. Having to pay this way, by either forking over the dough or losing the land and home you’ve put blood, sweat, and tears in goes beyond un-American. It’s inhuman. It’s not difficult to say, in fact it’s rather easy to say that if you’re for property tax in its current incarnation, you’re against liberty.
The right of a person to be secure in their property without threat of government intrusion or theft is a fundamental, God-given right and one more people should recognize, especially as home ownership rises. At times like these, more than ever, you must remind your elected representatives that this is the case. You must remind them that your liberty is not negotiable or expendable in the name of convenience and reliability. Remind them that such thoughts will often lead to the unreliability of their keeping their jobs. That’s your power in this debate.
posted by Rob Beck | 8:44 AM
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