This page was last updated on June 9, 2011.
Harrisburg’s double standard; Editorial; Beaver County Times; June 9, 2011.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.
“The politicians in Harrisburg are wrong and, typically, hypocritical in regard to rolling back exemptions that allow school districts to raise taxes above the rate of inflation without voter approval.
“Right now, 10 exemptions are allowed under the Taxpayer Relief Act of 2006. Districts are allowed to raise taxes to keep up with inflation, but if they want more, they have to go before the voters.
“However, certain exemptions, which must be approved by the state Department of Education, allowed this requirement to be waived. Included in the mix are pensions and special education.
“Gov. Tom Corbett and some lawmakers want to do away with those exemptions.
“But there’s a reason to keep them, and, in fact, to dump the voter referendums.
“Why?
“Because they’re unfair.
“School districts seeking voter approval basically become the whipping boy for things people can’t control.”
[RWC] As you will read later, this editorial isn’t really about fairness.
“Oil companies can raise the price of gasoline, utilities can charge more for their products, grocery stores can charge more for their goods, health-care insurance premiums can go through the roof, employers can impose pay freezes or cuts, and inflation can cut into paychecks and pensions — and even though people are mad as hell, they have to take it.”
[RWC] I’m sure “labor union dues” was in this list but was accidentally deleted during editing. <g>
“[T]hey have to take it?” The last I checked, we could alter our behavior to address this stuff. For example, I can choose to buy less of something when prices go up, but that’s not true for taxes. Other than “living down,” or moving in the case of local and state taxes, how can we lower how much we pay in taxes?
“Ah, but given the chance — the only one they have — to have their say, they respond to their frustrations with a vengeance. Perhaps that’s why of the 14 requests that went to voters over the last five years, 13 were rejected.”
[RWC] This is only a recent example. You may recall the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, a President Clinton initiative to add 100,000 local and state police officers by the year 2000. A local municipality (I don’t recall which one.) was ready to accept COPS funding, until taxpayers learned they would need to provide some kind of matching funds.
When people (think legislators, supervisors, school boards, etc.) believe they are spending someone else’s money, they tend to be generous. When people (think taxpayers) know they are spending their own money, they tend to be more frugal and do a better job of distinguishing between what they want and what they need. This is the real problem for the Times and other leftists and is one reason lefties prefer big government in which the real decision makers are as far away from taxpayers as possible. Lefties want to take money from taxpayers, but that becomes increasingly difficult the closer you get to the taxpayer. That’s why the idea of limited government includes carrying out legitimate government functions by the appropriate government level. For example, local roads should be paid for by local taxpayers, not by federal or state taxpayers.
“The politicians in Harrisburg are also being hypocritical because they would never dream of shackling themselves with these restrictions. They want the freedom to do as they please, which is what they generally do.”
[RWC] Make no mistake. The Times would pitch a fit if “The politicians in Harrisburg … shackl[ed] themselves with these restrictions” because it would put downward pressure on spending and taxation.
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