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Tax quandary is matter of trust
(by Dave Lange - April 07, 2011)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Tax quandary is matter of trust
I'm being torn by two competing philosophies.
On the one hand, there are local political leaders whom I know and trust, including Geauga County Commissioner and former South Russell Mayor William Young, current Mayor Matthew Brett and Councilman Jack Binder, who chairs South Russell's finance committee.
They say the village provides excellent municipal services for its residents and businesses, including police protection, road maintenance, a contract for firefighting and emergency medical service, plus a nice park. As one who works and conducts business in South Russell, I know that to be true.
They also say the village "runs a lean operation" and "has continued to operate within a fiscally responsible manner," but it is facing a budget deficit. Elected officials from Chardon to Gates Mills, Pepper Pike and Solon have said essentially the same thing. I tend to believe them.
Due to the state of the national economy, they say, local income-tax collections are down, interest rates on savings are down, Ohio is cutting back its financial support for local governments, personal property taxes were eliminated by the state, and estate taxes soon could be gone as well. Even though South Russell Village employees' wages have been frozen for two years, other costs have increased, including fire, dispatch and EMS contracts. I have no reason to doubt any of that.
Messrs. Young, Brett, Binder and others say it's become necessary to increase the current South Russell municipal income tax from 1 percent to 1.25 percent, or the current level of services cannot be continued. The village trash day and park maintenance could be the first to go. As one who has paid 1 percent of his income to South Russell for the past 20 years but, as a nonresident, doesn't benefit from trash day or village parks, I wish that were not true, but it probably is.
On the other hand, there are more distant politicians, such as U.S. House Speaker John A. Boehner, from the Cincinnati area, and Gov. John Kasich, from the Columbus area, who say that tax increases are bad, that government at all levels just needs to tighten its belt, and everything will be fine and dandy. As one who doesn't particularly care to pay taxes at any level, I would like to believe them.
However, it seems to me that the political leaders in South Russell have done a much better job of belt tightening than their counterparts have done in Washington or Columbus.
That little ditty about cutting taxes, which turned a booming U.S. economy and a $230 billion surplus into the Great Recession and a $1 trillion deficit during the last presidency, hasn't been so fine and dandy.
As we know, paying taxes is one of two things that are certain in life. That being the case, I'd rather help pay for police, firefighters, road repairs, park maintenance and even trash day in South Russell than borrow more money from China to build multimillion-dollar bridges to nowhere in Alaska or drop billions in bombs on Libya and Afghanistan.
Voters in South Russell will decide on May 3 whether to support Commissioner Young, Mayor Brett and Councilman Binder in raising my taxes or listen to House Speaker Boehner and Gov. Kasich by keeping them just the way they are.
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