To the NO-NEW-TAXES crowd, some facts, and a question:
- St. Paul hasn't collected more property tax overall in 12 years - the
Council and Mayor have held the total levy flat at roughly $64 million.
But homes pay somewhat more proportionally today; commercial property
pays less. Homes in wealthy parts of town pay more; homes in poorer
parts of town pay less proportionally. But the government isn't
getting a penny more from property taxes than in 1993. See why we were
able to hold taxes flat below (*). I believe our combined average
property tax burden (city, county, schools, etc.) still has NOT kept
pace with inflation since 1993 (verification anyone?)
- Raising the property tax levy with inflation is the solution
governments traditionally pursue (say from $64 to $66 million), but
concern has been expressed that this is particularly hard on homeowners
with fixed incomes.
- Councilmember Dave Thune (and Mayoral Candidate Elizabeth Dickinson)
has therefore has proposed an Income Tax as a fairer way to collect a
portion of the money we'd need from a property tax increase.
- THE QUESTION... If you don't want taxes to increase with inflation,
or don't like Dave's income tax proposal, WHAT WOULD YOU CUT, OR WHERE
WILL YOU FIND MORE MONEY LONG TERM? Would you stop giving employees a
raise (your good staff will leave, and you'll get a strike on your
hands)? No City employees are getting particularly rich from their day
jobs. Would you cut back police? Firefighters? Schools? Libraries?
Stop street repair? Sidewalk repair? Stop maintaining parks? Raid
the City's non-existent hidden cash reserve? I outlined all of the
major areas in a post called "Mayor's Budgets, compared to past years"
a couple weeks back. You have a few hours to solve the City's budget
woes. GOOD LUCK!
Before you go there, I think in St. Paul's case it's a major cop out to
simply allege there is corruption, or hold up one or two examples where
there was clear waste, and say that's why you shouldn't pay more. I've
heard that argument too many times - heck, I've even highlighted a few
examples of perceived waste (most of which were in the booming '90s,
under a Republican Mayor). But media focus only on government waste
is a way of swaying public opinion toward anti-tax sentiments. People
come on some of these examples for honest reasons, but some of it is a
calculated strategy by elites to breed cynicism (watch ABC's John
Stossel's reporting for examples - he's a self-described libertarian).
In any organization the size of our City government, there will always
be waste. But there is so much more benefit in schools, firefighters,
parks, libraries, economic development, and support staff. And I think
that in the last five years or so, St. Paul has run a pretty darn tight
ship.
So does Councilmember Dan Bostrom. Bostrom, the reliable conservative
on the City Council, told a 2002 Truth in Taxation Hearing that we
have, "cut to the bone, and I'm not sure there is much more to cut."
Whatever there was left was cut the next year, in response to our
Governor's cuts in Local Government Aid (LGA).
Bob Spaulding
Downtown
* We could afford not to raise the $64 million levy because in the
1990s the state increased its Local Government Aid (LGA) payments to
St. Paul by tens of millions over the years. In the last three years,
Local Government Aid (LGA) has been cut back by tens of millions. A
DFL legislature and centrist Republican Governor increased LGA; a split
legislature and conservative Republican Governor decreased LGA.
Because property taxes are regressive, and LGA payments come from more
progressive taxation systems, LGA had the effect of reducing the tax
burden on those least able to afford it. But Governor Pawlenty didn't
like that system, and we are left having to raise the more regressive
property taxes to meet our needs.
Rest of post
> Dave:
>
> How about more accounability on the taxes that are now collected?
>
> I have been a life long union member(45 plus years) taxpayer for all
> those
> years, and a back slapping DFLer until 5 years ago when I had to take
> some hard
> looks at items and projects on the priority list.
> The DFL leadership (local,state and national) is making it harder
> every day
> for me not to look at other options.
>
> The recent state legislature mess and what looks like a city council
> and
> mayoral fight is another reason people are leaving the DFL.
>
> Where are the new ideas? Wher are new solutions?
>
> New taxes re not the complete answer.