Miracles never cease...

Sometimes I just cannot get over how our local government officials seem to think raising taxes and fees is the answer to everything...

Case in point, the Mayor's desire to raise our City property taxes by 3.9% this year.

The City Council and The Mayor agreed in September of 2005 to raise property taxes by 2.6%, which is bad enough. Consider that our garbage fees are going up $1/month, our water bills are going up 25% this year, and our stormwater fees went up 65% this year.

Now the Mayor wants to go back on the 2.6% increase he agreed to and raise them 3.9%. You absolutely will not believe what his reasoning is.

If they do not raise the levy by the full 3.9% allowed, then by Indiana law they are limited by how much they can increase it next year.

Another way to say this is that they must increase it the maximum this year so they can then turn around and increase it by the maximum again next year.

The miracle is that our "Republican" City Council actually defeated the mayor's plan. I truly expected them to pass it.

As far as I can tell, there is VERY LITTLE difference between our Mayor and City Council. They all want to increase both spending as well as fees and taxes.

I know if we had Libertarians on City Council this proposal would get voted down...

Mike