This article in the Columbus Dispatch outlines a fascinating storyline that is guaranteed to recur in community after community throughout Ohio in the next few months.
Essentially, Ohio is actually seeing its tax revenues tick upwards, but, according to many local officials, they are simply horrified that those dramatic cuts that are pending in the state budget will offset those gains. While tax increases at the local level are not explicitly mentioned, one need not be clairvoyant to imagine what will likely be attempted in the future.
Check this part out,
“Columbus and the area’s most-populous counties are collecting more taxes as the private sector recovers.
But “the economic recovery is not enough to cover the loss of state support” to local governments, Franklin County Administrator Don Brown said. “We’ll see no growth. We’ll actually have to cover the loss by trimming the budget and services.”
Columbus City Auditor Hugh J. Dorrian sees the same trend: “Things are fine this year,” he said. “We’ve got a significant problem next year already starting.”
He’s predicting that Columbus could end the year with $26.3 million more in income-tax collections than in 2010, a 5.5 percent increase. But Dorrian is telling the mayor and the City Council not to spend that money.”
Well, at least the Columbus Auditor is suggesting the city act prudently by not spending the “extra dough” and Franklin County is not laying the groundwork for a tax hike (…yet). Although, its hard to dismiss the recent increases in Columbus area residents’ water bills as anything other than a hidden tax hike. So maybe that “prudence” isn’t quite what its cracked up to be…
At any rate, doesn’t the fact that this conversation is even happening strike some as a troubling sign of where we’ve come to?
Rather than try to shift blame to the state while wringing their hands, wouldn’t local officials do better to continue examining how they do business? Plowing more money in to antiquated ways of doing business is not a recipe for future prosperity.
While there continues to be much debate over the dreaded “c-word”, consolidation, now is the time to investigate this. Maybe it will work in some cases and not others, but the time for thinking through how local governments are organized is here.
An uptick in tax revenue, especially one that may well be temporary given the current stagnation of the national economy, should not be an excuse to avoid thinking through the implications of the future. It should simply be something local governments prudently manage for the present and future benefit of their bosses- the voting public.
With respect to the fear that local governments will now start asking for tax increases, this post asks: “At any rate, doesn’t the fact that this conversation is even happening strike some as a troubling sign of where we’ve come to? ”
The answer is yes and no.
Yes, it is troubling that the knee-jerk response of many local officials to their reduced revenue is to contemplate increasing taxes.
But on the bright side, the issue of whether or not to increase taxes to support a municipal status quo — which includes compensation and staffing level of municipal employees — has been brought down to the local level.
The is all for the good because it’s people at the local level that can best decide if tax their taxes should be raised for this-or-that in their community.
When such decisions get made in Columbus, however, there is often too great of a disconnect between the actual will of the people and what get passes. This happens because the politicians and the special-interest groups (like the teachers unions, etc.) pull the old razzle-dazzle — always aided-and-abetted by the media, by the way. People are given the impression that they’re getting something for nothing via state aid.
Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why the progressives & liberals favor all forms of centralization. The more centralized something is, the less control the people have over it.
This is the same for consolidation of government services. From a conservative point of view, consolidations can only be legitimate if the towns involved agree on it.
I say that because some progressive groups are pushing for forced consolidation of wide areas of Ohio — forced in that either the consolidation would be done through legislation in Columbus or by countywide vote. That is, if the county as a whole voted ‘yes,’ then all the communities in the county would be yoked into the consolidation regardless of how they themselves voted on the issue.
For example, the Regional Prosperity Initiative (RPI) http://www.neo-rpi.org/ wants to consolidate planning & growth in all the counties of northeast Ohio. This is a progressive’s dream come true and a nightmare for conservatives.
One last thing about regionalization and/or consolidation. It’s key selling point — at least the one presented for public consumption — is that it will lower the cost of government. And that is true for a properly conceived plan. However, I find it more than odd that the most vocal and vociferous opponents of consolidation/regionalization have never before sought to lower the cost of government on any other issue. Indeed, these people are self-described progressives, and they are continually championing more government spending. That’s a warning sign for conservatives to go slow and any proposition presented.
Whether the issue is raising taxes at the municipal level or consolidating government services, I say fine as long as it is done voluntarily by the communities involves. The more decisions that get push down to the local level, the better.