Looking back over the last 10 years, I find that my household income has been increasing at less than two percent per year (less than the real inflation rate). In short, I seem to be losing financial ground. Over that same 10-year period, I see that my county property taxes have been increasing at a rate of 29 percent per year. This is a serious problem that I don’t see being addressed by our county administrator, commissioners and managers. As rightly stated by economist Herbert Stein, “Whatever can’t go on forever, won’t.”
Instead of all this happy talk of double-digit levy increases in the coming years, I’d like to make a modest proposal. It’s obvious that what we have been doing over the last 10 years is not working and will only get worse. It’s equally obvious that the current road we’re on will eventually come to an end, a bad one. So, before it’s too late, let’s think outside the box. Let’s do something completely different. Let’s cut the 2018 levy by 10 percent.
You read that right. Cut the taxes next year and in all subsequent years until we reach a new sustainable balance between what property owners can afford and what county assets and services are truly needed.
It’s a bold plan, I know. And it will not come without pain. But it may release a new wave of creative budget control and public-spirited community involvement that we can all be proud of. This little socialist utopia we have been creating is a pipe dream. There’s nothing “cool” about it and it’s bound to end in blood and tears. As the great Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
Of course we can also throw the current bums out – which is almost always a good idea.
Daryl Popkes
Gunflint Trail
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