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In The Public Interest: Iowa Property Tax Reform: A One-Eyed View of Government

The property tax is a long-lasting cornerstone of American taxation and is as deeply rooted in our way of funding government as the notion of public education, which is not a coincidence since property taxes were an original source of funding schools. Today, though, government has sprawled in all different directions. Local governments are involved in everything from housing to sports arenas and convention centers. Consequently, their budgets have exploded, and their need for revenues has become insatiable. It is therefore no coincidence that whenever there is talk about tax reform, especially property tax reform, cities and counties get worried. 

The spending record of Iowa’s local governments is not exactly fiscally conservative. The U.S. Census data for local government spending shows that Iowa’s counties, cities, towns, and school districts expanded their budgets by more than 13 percent in two years, from $12.8 billion in 2007 to $14.5 billion 2009 (latest year available). In fairness, this is less than the 17.8 percent expansion of state government spending in Iowa during that time, but this does not make it easier for taxpayers to keep up with the growth in government. 

The people who pay for this government spending spree are, ultimately, Iowa’s families. How many of them saw their income grow 8, 7, or even 6 percent per year in the last years before the Great Recession? 

But questions about who is going to pay for all this government spending seemed to be shoved to the side when (tax-funded) lobbyists for the local governments in the Hawkeye State had their chance to comment on the proposed property tax reform.  The Des Moines Register reported that “representatives…described their concerns, focusing on the bills’ limitations on municipalities’ ability to raise revenue through property taxes and the uncertain impacts the reforms could have on their budgets.” 

I am not a state Legislator in Iowa, and maybe that is a good thing for both me and Iowans. But if I were, I would throw a question back at the lobbyists: How about reviewing where all that extra spending went that you took on back in the heydays before the recession? 

Even when the reform leaves the local governments with a nicely padded cushion, they still complain loudly. This is the same exhibition of insatiability, spendoholism, and utter self-centeredness that runs through almost every legislature and almost every government bureaucracy in the country. 

Best of luck to the tax cutters in the Iowa state legislature. 

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Public Interest Institute.  They are brought to you in the interest of a better informed citizenry. 

Dr. Sven R. Larson is a Research Fellow with Wyoming Liberty Group and a former resident of Iowa.  This article was first published in Dr. Larson’s blog, The Liberty Bullhorn, which can be read at http://libertybullhorn.com/.  For an interview or more information on this issue, contact Public.Interest.Institute@LimitedGovernment.org.

 

Spotting Media Hookers in the Bait

By Randy Crawford

We all know about Sandra Fluke being showcased last month via a contrived Democrat congressional committee, so she could act like she's owed free birth control pills on demand. Once again, it's the tired hypocrisy of claiming inexplicably that a 'private' body has to be funded for whatever it perchance craves through captive public financing. Strange -- she's not insisting that any time I need a medical visit or my dishes washed she should be obligated to pay for it. When I crave a box of bon-bons, is she picking up the tab? But such is the nature of selfish hypocrisy. And then, rather than Rush Limbaugh calling her on her doctrine of irresponsibility, he unfortunately fell into the trap that was set for him. Limbaugh allowed Fluke to play the role of poor oppressed waif so that the leftie journalist attack dogs waiting in the wings could pounce. What we see in consequence from the mass hysteria media isn't a surprise either. The story is no longer about how Obama is warping Obamacare even further, violating past promises, and trying to chisel out a doctrine that his dictates toward public financing of 'private' birth control pills magically supersede thousands of years of religious practice as protected by the First Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

No, no. The actual subject matter of what Obama is up to won't be addressed, if only a distraction can be fabricated and peddled through the medium of his well-placed allies in the media. Fluke took care of initiating that deviation onto an obvious path of red herring distraction. The actual fault of Fluke's ploy wasn't addressed at once when it should have been, and Limbaugh not only let the chance for shedding light slip past he also poured on a lot of heat that stoked the flames for his predictable attackers. We see the mass hysteria media agitating as aggressive marketers for yet another leftie publicity and propaganda campaign, but where are they when Obama or Biden or Pelosi say something dicey? Do media moguls issue howls of protest? Do they encourage boycotts of abortion mills when another customer bleeds to death, or another million babies are butchered? Do they publicize the risks and complications of birth control pills in increasing the rates of cancer, liver disease, and fatal blood clots?

Educated citizens need to be consistently on the alert for this type of fraud, and call it out for what it is at every opportunity. The lefties, who are liberal with your money but not their own, love to stage distractions the minute they realize they are losing. Don't fall for it. They love to deviate the discussion off onto some pathway that appears germane but is actually irrelevant. Don't fall for it. They love to try changing the rules, changing the vocabulary, and playing specious word games when they see they have backed themselves into a corner. Don't fall for it. Rather, we need to keep dragging them back to whatever the real topic is no matter how much they throw their predictable tantrums and kick and scream. Truth is what they fear most, and truth is what we need to focus on the most. Develop an instinct to tell the hook from the bait, and don't fall for either unless you want the hookers to be deciding America's fate with another trip luring the unaware down the next red herring lane.

 

Randy Crawford is a political activist, who never hesitates to shine some light on obvious wrongs. 

My Response to Sandra Fluke

By Todd Gutknecht

Someone on Nancy Pelosi’s Congressional panel should have pointed out to Ms. Fluke the reality that if she is truly as sexually active a she portends, perhaps she should just use condoms. After all, "The Pill" doesn't prevent STD's. Nine dollars per month is the actual price of generic Contraceptive Pills at either Wal-Mart or Target pharmacy WITHOUT INSURANCE. Where she came up with the exorbitant pricing for contraception is anybody’s guess. It is my honest belief that any student that is too irresponsible to afford $9 a month for their own contraceptives, is a student that is clearly too immature and too irresponsible to be sexually active in the first place.

Surely a young woman who is smart enough to get accepted to Georgetown Law School is smart enough to earn an extra measly $9 a month to buy her own contraception. If nothing else, she could serve her fellow man, and sell a pint of Plasma once every 3 months, and use that income to easily pay for her own pills. 

Rush chose his words poorly. Ms. Fluke isn't a prostitute. After all, prostitutes actually work and provide for themselves. No, quite the contrary, Ms. Fluke is a spoiled, arrogant child who is glad to portray herself as being a victim of the Catholic Church. Furthermore, in her own warped form of self pity she sees her victimization as being caused by the Church’s blind devotion to outdated moral confines and religious dogma. The Progressive Left is more than willing to portray her as a victim to serve their own power grabbing needs. After all, Progressive Liberals ALWAYS need victims in order to seek more control and offer more security. Without victimization why would anyone trade liberty for security? Without that tradeoff Progressives have no purpose to exist.

However, the bottom line is this fight isn't about contraception at all! This fight is about entitlement and Government mandating forms of Socialism. It is about scrubbing away any and all forms of faith in divine providence. It is about destroying the very notion of personal responsibility from our society. This is about replacing traditional societal morals and mores, and replacing them with Governmental providence and a complete devotion to secular dicta and mandates.

Whether it is; the ACLU, the SEIU, Occupy Wall Street, ACORN, Project Pink or the American Socialist Party it is undeniable that this Nation is now facing an organized assault on traditional American values. This division is no longer merely the harmless conflict of two differing visions of what America should be as Thomas Sowell so brilliantly portrayed in his book A Conflict of Visions. The division has evolved into something much more dire and sinister. It is now a division of whether we believe that this Republic will remain a God Fearing, Capitalist, Rule of Law, Representative Republic, or are we destined to become a Secular, Socialist Mobocracy? Governed not by rule of Law, but instead ruled by political will, and force of mob. Obama vowed to change this Nation. In that regard he has done everything in his power to bring that about, despite how many rounds of golf, trips to Hawaii, or ski trips to Vail he has been able to fit in. 

Todd Gutknecht ~ Cedar Rapids
B.A. Political Science University of Northern Iowa

Tax Increment Financing: Piracy and Cows

By Deborah D. Thornton 

MOUNT PLEASANT, IA – In 2008, the Public Interest Institute (PII) issued a Policy Study titled “Tax Increment Financing (TIF): Getting it Right.”  This study questioned the improper use of TIF by cities for infrastructure development in economically “blighted” areas and for general economic and residential development. 

 

PII researcher Jonathan Miltimore noted that one of the problems with TIFs was that the criteria were so general and undefined that cities began to use them for a wide variety of projects.   Additionally, he noted that prior to FY2009 the TIF revenue had been “lumped together with an assortment of funds – federal grants, road use taxes” and others, and labeled as special revenue funds.  Therefore it was impossible to track the amount or use of TIF taxes by a city.  Other concerns included the lack of input and oversight by citizens and affected jurisdictions.

 

Some changes to the original law have been made.  As of FY2009, funds are tracked separately from other tax revenue.  This transparency has resulted in more questions about TIFs and the impact on both county governments and school districts. 

 

The most significant questions about TIFs have been raised in Johnson County.  In September 2011, Coralville used TIF financing to “lure” the Von Maur department store from Sycamore Mall in Iowa City – less than five miles away – to the new Iowa River Landing site.  The estimates of the amount of tax money being offered are as high as $16 million. 

 

Officials with Johnson County government and the Clear Creek Amana and Iowa City school districts are also concerned about the impact on their budgets.  A report by the Iowa Association of School Boards states that Clear Creek Amana will lose $2,974 per pupil in property tax revenue in FY2012 because of the Coralville TIF.

 

A public meeting in Coralville on TIFs drew a standing-room only crowd of concerned citizens and calls for significant changes to the TIF law.  Ideas suggested were time-frame limits, individual-project limits, a prohibition on piracy offers, a percent of property limit, a better definition of allowable projects, and joint approval and review processes.

 

Peter Fisher of the Iowa Policy Project said, “many cities view a TIF area as a perpetual cash cow to finance city operations that have nothing to do with economic development.”  “While most Iowans like cows, this ‘cash cow’ is in need of significant reform,” said Deborah Thornton, a Research Analyst with Public Interest Institute in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.  

 

 

Public Interest Institute’s INSTITUTE BRIEF, “Tax Increment Financing: Piracy and Cows,” is available at www.LimitedGovernment.org.

 

For an interview or more information on this issue, contact Deborah Thornton, Public Interest Institute Research Analyst.  Contact her at Public.Interest.Institute@LimitedGovernment.org.

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Obama policy emboldens our enemies

The Conservative Take, by Steve Rathje

The Obama administration, by way of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others, are and have been for quite some time attempting to broker a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel. As you know, the Palestinians are supported by terror groups, Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda which are in turn funded by Iran. Obviously then, there will be no peace until these terror organizations and Iran's support of them cease to exist and given the current scenario, peace isn’t likely to take root anytime soon.  At least not in our lifetime. Further, Iran doesn't want peace.  They want Israel (and her allies) removed from the face of the earth to usher in the ‘12^th Imam,’ as has been stated time and again by Iran ’s dictator, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Obviously then, any so-called ‘acceptable’ peace plan will be nothing more than a deception and a period in time whereby the aggressors will stockpile and/or fully develop the means by which they can achieve their ultimate goal.  That goal is to gain the technology whereby they can assemble a nuclear warhead to an already existing delivery platform, launch it, and detonate it for maximum affect. 

With the unveiling of Iran's new unmanned bomber several months ago, ‘The Ambassador of Death’ and its ability to carry nuclear ordinance, a very clear and distinct message is being sent to Israel and her allies; "Any attempt to destroy our nuclear facilities or attack Iran in any way, will be met with a retaliatory strike insuring your own annihilation.” Unfortunately this threat will go unchallenged by the Obama administration, as any retaliation by Iran due to an Israeli first strike, would be considered justified rather than self defense.

  

This administration's inability to react accordingly, appropriately and in a timely manner has not only cost America trillions of dollars, but will now more than likely, cost thousands of lives as well. The Obama administration and its policy of apology and capitulation rather than that of strength and deterrence has done nothing more than embolden our enemies and make the world a less safe place to live.

 

Our first strike capability is diminishing daily under this administration.  There's the infiltration of illegal’s crossing our sovereign borders which is being embraced rather than prevented; our economy is in near ruin and unemployment expected to hit 10% in the near future; North Korea and Iran have obtained weapons of mass destruction; terrorist organizations are growing in mass and weapons are being developed to destroy entire nations; so what better time than now for the ruthless dictators of the world to strike? Our president has chosen to bow and capitulate rather than stand upright, look them in the eye, and dare them to blink. Is change coming? I believe it is, but we will know for sure in November 2012 when we remove the blinders from our eyes; see the world and those in Congress for what they truly are; make adjustments; and elect a Congress along with a President that will stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies abroad to send a clear and distinct message to our enemies both foreign and domestic that we will not be deterred. I just pray it’s not too late.

 

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=225475

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