Municipal Revenue Lobbying Has Foes (Corruption Alert)

Houston Chronicle ^ | April 21, 2005 | R.G. RATCLIFFE

[anymouse]

Contact your local government officials and demand that they drop their membership in these type of organizations that are obviously working against the taxpayers' best interest. This is a shaddow government that we all pay for, yet is unaccountable. The only way to stop this ongoing abuse is to de-fund them by forcing our local government officials to drop their membership in these organizations.

[anymouse]

Texas tax corruption ping.

[hispanarepublicana]

(Hispanarepublicana smugly smiling here)

The legislation was authored by my rep, ya'll, and it originated with my local city council made up of business-owners not politicians...

[TXBSAFH]

I am with you. It is timeto throw the tax ans spend rinos out of Austin.

[mmercier]

in massachusetts we have "prop 21/2" that limits property tax increases to 2.5% annually without local voter "override".

naturally we have local override proposals all the time. in any case, most overrides fail in local communities, primarily because elderly residents (who disproportionately vote) on fixed incomes kill them off.
calling the votes on random dates and trying to make it as inconvenient as possible to vote failed in too many instances.

the massachusetts solution is to propose a law exempting retirees (thereby keeping them from voting) from the increase, and collect such tax when the estate is settled (inheritance tax). then they call the vote on a friday before a long weekend...

brilliant idea, no doubt thought up by a harvard grad... this being massachusetts, i have no idea of the status of this proposed bill, and will likely hear about it on the front page of the glob after passage... even if rinoromney vetos, at that point an override by both houses is assured.

it will no doubt be a victory "for the children".

anyone from the gaystate know the status of this bill...?

i'm so cynical i'm making myself sick.

[anymouse]

Only four responses to this important thread?!!

Are Texas FReepers asleep?

[MeekOneGOP]

Only four responses to this important thread?!!

Are Texas FReepers asleep?

Well, let's ping a few here then. :)

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!

[Proud_texan]

Yeah, and what they don't talk about is that while they may (or may not) limit the cap in percentage increase there's no limit on how much they can increase the valuation (as far as I can tell).

So they limit the tax increase to 3%. No problem, they just increase valuations by 30% and make landowners go through the grist mill to prove that they pulled the numbers out of thin air.

The only year I've ever had a fair valuation is the year I bought my house and that was a slam dunk, I just went and showed them what I had paid for it. They had it valued at 30% more than I paid.

[TexKat]

Thanks for the ping Meek.

Bump!!

[MeekOneGOP]

:)

[Dubya]

It would be a waste of time for me. The big spenders rule here in TX. Thanks for the heads up.

[Che Chihuahua]

I can hardly wait to see what tax scam they try here in Scam Diego (San Diego) with an over $1.5 billion pension fund deficit. My guess is that there will a gross receipts or city income tax on the horizon. My fellow Texas you have no idea of what oppressive taxation really is.

[Dubya]

BTW My Rep. Bill Zedler did vote to cap appraisals.

[Old Professer]

Property taxes are the most invidious of all taxes, they that levy them steal from that which is fast becoming worthless through aging all the while depleting the resources of the tenant to keep it habitable and, when it is forlorn and decrepit, the same theives send out the codes goons to force the now destitute to bring the decrepit mess up to it's imagined value.

[Bigun]

Are Texas FReepers asleep?

Not asleep just lazy and leaderless!

We LOVE to pound on our keyboards and let off steam here on FreeRepublic but when it comes to actually DOING something...Well...That is another matter entirely! That would require developing a plan and following through on it! MUCH easier to just cry, bitch, and moan!

[anymouse]

Thanks Meek.

We Texans should all be up in arms over this corrupt shadow government using our tax dollars to lobby our representatives to take even more of our tax dollars.

We can't toss em' out, but we can starve 'em out.

[anymouse]

Not asleep just lazy and leaderless!

We LOVE to pound on our keyboards and let off steam here on FreeRepublic but when it comes to actually DOING something...Well...That is another matter entirely! That would require developing a plan and following through on it! MUCH easier to just cry, bitch, and moan!

Gulfbreeze, that sounds like a challenge. We need an Elliot Ness to clean out the Muni-gangs from Texas politics.

[Donaeus]

Thanks for the ping

Bump for later read and reply

[BJClinton]

It should be pointed out that many of these local governments are the same ones that bitch and moan about people fleeing to the bedroom communities.

[TXBSAFH]

Please add me to you TX (At the stage it should be spelled Taxes) tax corruption ping list. Thank you.