County Tax Hikes Are Coming
Gary Gerard, dumbhoosier.com
I truly do not envy county councilmen
and commissioners these days.
On the one hand, they have capable public servants – their
department heads – telling them they don’t have enough money
to properly serve the public.
On the other hand, they have constituents telling them they
don’t want any new or higher taxes.
Well, unfortunately, those are mutually exclusive
eventualities.
With the county projected to come up more than $4 million
short by 2016, you can be sure there are some new taxes
coming.
This is not to say county officials have been poor stewards of
your tax dollars. There is always room for improvement, of
course, but I’ve been watching this county government operate
for more than 25 years and for the most part, they’re pretty
frugal – pretty conservative.
Most of the things that one could deem excessive have been the
outgrowth of federal grant money. Hey, if the feds are going
to throw money at us, why not spend it? Unfortunately, that
money is always earmarked for specific uses. We’re
buying SWAT trailers and night vision gear with federal grant
money, not filling potholes.
I find it more than just a little ironic that conservative
county officials are faced with a revenue shortfall caused by
conservative tax and fiscal policies at the state level.
I, too, consider myself one of those fiscal conservatives. The
“TEA” in Tea Party movement initially stood for Taxed Enough
Already.
And while I agree with that notion – I believe we are taxed
enough already – I also see the reality of the situation
faced by local government officials.
It’s not like there are fewer people living in Kosicusko
County now than there were 10 years ago.
More people means more need for services. More people are
going through our court systems. More houses require more
assessing and permitting. More traffic means more wear and
tear on roads. More development means more strain on
infrastructure.
To be sure, development also increases the tax base. But over
the years, that increase in revenue has not kept pace with the
demand for services.
It hasn’t kept pace with costs, either, which is probably the
most troubling aspect of the whole equation.
Pretty much everything local government buys costs more today
than it did last year. Of course ,at the same time, pretty
much everything you and I – the taxpayers – buy today costs
more than it did last year, too
Meanwhile, by any measure, wages aren’t keeping pace.
It’s the old squeeze play.
The county needs more money. The only way to get it is to
collect it from local taxpayers. But wages aren’t growing, so
taxpayers see more of their disposable income disappear.
This is happening all across this great land.
On a national scale, as more disposable income is gobbled up
by government at all levels, less disposable income is
available for consumers to buy stuff. This tends to slow down
the economy.
When the economy slows, wages stagnate and people become
unemployed. This means fewer people paying taxes and people
paying taxes at lower levels. This causes government shorfalls
and a need to raise taxes.
It’s truly a vicious cycle.
The closer you get to the target of taxpayer-funded services,
the more likely it is that tax dollars are wisely spent. As I
eluded to earlier, I don’t think our county squanders tax
dollars aimlessly.
That’s because the guys holding the purse strings actually
live near the people paying the bills. We’re all neighbors.
It gets worse the farther removed from the taxpayer the
legislator is.
By the time you get to the federal level, you have lawmakers
jamming literally billions of tax dollars down rat holes of
ineffective, inefficient, unnecessary, unwieldy government
programs.
Show me one federal government program that works well and
hits its intended target.
Show me one.
Even the biggies that are hailed as successes – Medicaid,
Medicare, Social Security – are teetering on the brink of
insolvency.
So I guess I am a lot less forgiving of the federal government
when it comes to tax dollars than I am local government.
Problem is, there’s only so much money to go around.
If only there was a way to drag some of those tax dollars back
home. Ever the dreamer.
So get ready, Kosciusko County. Higher taxes are coming. More
than likely this will take the form of a $40 wheel tax and
some $25 surtax per vehicle which would be collected when you
renew your registration.
There also might be an increase in your property tax rate via
the cumulative capital development fund.
These moves, along with moving money around between funds
would help the county achieve financial solvency.
Now, depending on where you live and what you do in this great
land, you’re already paying some combination of the
Building Permit Tax, CDL License Tax, Cigarette Tax, Corporate
Income Tax, Dog License Tax, Federal Income Tax, Federal
Unemployment Tax, Fishing License Tax, Food License Tax, Fuel
Permit Tax, Gasoline Tax, Hunting License Tax, Inheritance
Tax, Inventory Tax, IRS Interest Charges, IRS Penalties,
Liquor Tax, Luxury Tax, Marriage License Tax, Medicare Tax,
Property Tax, Real Estate Tax, Service Charge, Social Security
Tax, Road Use Tax, Sales Taxes, Recreational Vehicle Tax,
School Tax , State Income Tax , State Unemployment Tax,
Telephone Federal Excise Tax, Telephone Federal Universal
Service Fee Tax, Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge
Tax, Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax, Utility Tax,
Vehicle License Registration Tax, Vehicle Sales Tax,
Watercraft Registration Tax, Well Permit Tax and the Workers
Compensation Tax.
And this isn’t even close to a comprehensive list because each
time our fearless leaders in Washington pass a bill, they add
a few new taxes and fees to help fund it.
The Affordable Care Act alone contains at least 21 new taxes
and fees.
So let’s look for the silver lining.
All things considered, is a county wheel tax, surtax and a
bump in the CCD gonna break ya?
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