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Taxpayers inherit the expense
(by Barbara Christian - April 18, 2012)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Taxpayers inherit the expense
It's safe to say a vast majority of the elected officials in our largely Republican Chagrin Valley communities voted for Gov. John Kasich.
Looking back, we wonder if they would have given him the nod had they known he planned to take away a major share of their towns' income by signing a bill that abolished their inheritance-tax revenues.
This was good news to the no-taxes-no-how-no-way crowd and folks who are named in the wills of rich uncles. But for local officials, supporting Mr. Kasich turned out to be a classic case of voting against their own best interests.
Now, those same public officials are going to have to explain to their constituents why there is no money to do the things they have come to expect.
Income from the inheritance tax is not small potatoes to Chagrin Falls. The village has been getting a whopping $800,000 a year from the tax that is about to evaporate.
Luckily, Chagrin Falls didn't use it for day-to-day expenses but salted it away in the town's capital-improvement fund to pay for big-ticket items like road rebuilds, replacement of water and sewer lines and infrastructure repairs.
So who is going to pick up the slack when those inheritance dollars go away Dec. 31? Look no further than your bathroom mirror.
Maybe we'll pick up the tab by way of a new tax levy, increased water and sewer rates, creative fees no one ever dreamed of or all of the above.
What the governor did when he signed away inheritance dollars was to pay that tax forward ... to us. Get rid of one tax and get a new one to take its place. If you see something wrong in that logic, please raise your hand.
And it doesn't stop with just the inheritance tax. Look for fresh hell and more cuts from the Columbus cadre, village Mayor Tom Brick has warned.
During a recent discussion of the inheritance-tax situation, one Chagrin Falls councilman, cracking wise, asking his colleagues when they could start fracking for oil and gas.
Little did he know he had tapped into local environmentalists' worst nightmare. Since the fracking flap began, they have looked at places like Whitesburg Nature Preserve and worried it could happen there.
But it need not come to fracking for dollars. Soon Chagrin Falls residents will be called to a town-hall meeting. The disappearing inheritance-tax revenues will be explained, questions answered and suggestions taken.
Here's an idea village leaders might consider. Sell naming rights to pieces of the village's big road and utility projects. For $100 a foot, folks could buy a length of sewer line to be named after a loved one. Nothing says "I love you" like a couple feet of sewer line.
Fifty bucks could get you membership in the "Friends of the Chagrin Falls Potholes." It comes with a complimentary scoop of asphalt for the pothole of your choice and the right to name it in honor of someone special.
Fundraising options are endless. Lay down $25 and buy a stretch of double-yellow center line on your street. Seventy-five bucks gets you a double-yellow right on Main Street. Or contribute $50 for a pot of crack sealant.
Ridiculous, you say. Maybe. But no more ridiculous than voting against your own best interests.
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