Back in early 2012 some folks in North Dakota got up in arms about paying property taxes (in other words: Paying rent to live in their own house) so they wrote up a petition, got enough signatures, and got it approved to go on the June ballot.
The Powers-that-be did not want to lose their power to spend other peoples' money. I consider the 'Powers-that-be' are people able to hire lawyers and accountants to get them out of paying property taxes, or use property taxes to get them out of paying other taxes. Whatever, so began a struggle back and forth with articles and letters-to-the-editor for and against--as they named it--Measure 2.
The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota, has two political cartoonists. One of them compared Measure 2 to #2, what happens in the bathroom. I didn't think that was very classy, sent a letter-to-the-editor, told them what I thought, and whoever runs the Opinion page must have agreed, as my letter was published.
The 'Powers-that-be' must have gotten scared that we (the Measure 2 proponents) were going to win, for the 'Powers-that-be' went around the state--and out-of-state--and collected all kinds of money to advertise against us. To name the two largest contributors: $103,225, ND Association of Realtors, Bismarck (GROWTH Powers-that-be,) and $100,000, National Education Association, Washington, DC. (I have to wonder where their money came from...Taxes?) There were several others. The Powers-that-be ended up with $600,000. (Us proponents with $10-$50 donations, collected $21,760.) And guess what? When they started to use that money to put out scare-tactic television advertising--similar to what's going on today with the White House saying how bad this sequestration is going to be--yeah, we lost by a large margin.
So I don't forget , AARP, The National Association of Retired Persons, also Washington, DC, donated $20,000. Strange, I thought the AARP was an organization for helping the senior citizen, not going against them. Why do I say that? Because many senior citizens end up on just social security to pay their bills: A fixed income, right? One of the letters-to-the-editor brought out the fact that no little old ladies were being thrown out in the street. Well, that letter should have set us all straight.
He's probably right. I don't have the statistics, although I'm sure there are some. (People do lose their home to unpaid taxes.) The important thing here is that other fact: 'Fixed' income. So they weren't thrown into the street, but they also probably ended up not having much extra money to spend in their retirement. Then there's the senior citizen homestead credit discount after they're 65, but what about those years reaching 65? It can be a battle.
I signed that Measure 2 petition and wrote several other letters-to-the-editor. Some didn't get published. I wonder why. I didn't name-call. I made sure they were all short. But then our main regional newspaper, The Forum, Fargo, ND, stood solidly with the 'Powers-that-be.' That could be one reason.
That brings us up to date. Right now North Dakota is awash in new tax revenue. The western part of the state is being fracked and fracked and fracked, for oil. (They are talking thousands more drill sites.) And we have no real idea how that 'fracking' is affecting our ground water--I mean, come on! That water, with some kind of chemical in it is being forced underground to somehow get the oil out. Well, we don't know what it's doing down there. Is it just staying where we put it, or does it, as water does, start moving to who knows where? The area, population-wise, is growing frantically; it's going to need good water. The thing is, we need oil for power, but do we have to get it all out of the ground right NOW? And sell it right NOW? What about the future, meaning just a few years down the road? I don't mean decades or generations...but years. Oh yeah, the oil companies want to drill in the Killdeer Mountains too. I wonder how long Theodore Roosevelt National Park will be spared?
But, of course, the 'Powers-that-be' love the population-growth. It means more people to pay taxes, it means hiring more people to provide services to all that population-growth, and that requires even more taxes, and more growth, and more population, etc., etc., ETC! You see, as humankind sees it today, only 'growth' supports the economy. We haven't yet learned to do it any other way.
But, this post is not about 'growth' and what fracking for oil is doing to our environment.
It's about taxes, and how to spend all that money. I'm serious! Our legislators and local officials, and letter writers, all have ideas how to spend that money. I mean--my god! We've got it, we have to spend it! One legislator wanted to build our governor a new governor's mansion. Well, good old Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple put the brakes to that, saying the house was fine as is. Good for him!
I do have to give some of the legislators credit, though, as property tax relief is in the mix. So some of that money will go to help home owners pay their property taxes. But The Forum has already came out on the front page "Out with the old, in with the new?" That's the headline. The meat of the article was whether to build new schools or fix the old ones. I mean, in this country we don't seem to be able to build something to last more than a few decades. And, of course they aren't going to repair anything! That would embarrass the kids, and, worse, embarrass the parents. They want those architecturally-designed new schools to outshine their neighbor's schools.
So here's what's going to happen: Sure, some home owners will get a some temporary property tax relief, but that oil-tax money will NOT go on forever. In the meantime we will spend and spend and spend, mostly on schools: New schools, new coliseum-size gymnasiums, unnecessary feel-good courses and new teachers to teach those new courses, etc., ETC! Then, when the oil tax revenue ends, we will be right back where we started, only worse, because all that newness needs to keep going as is. The county will immediately send their assessors right back out to knock on the doors of property owners and increase their property taxes beyond what they ever were before!
So, people of North Dakota, let's not wait for that scenario to happen. Let's get a petition going again and, this time, let's us go outside the state, too, and gather up some of that 'outside' money. Surely there's other people out there in other states who agree that property taxes are beyond out-of-control. Some will remember what happened in North Dakota in 2012 because our fight made national news, and if they don't know about the outside-of-state money barons that helped cause our defeat, we will tell them.
Now comes the gist of this post: What's known as the 'Fair Tax.' The link takes us to a video discussing that very simple tax but only talks about replacing 'income' tax, but it could replace property tax too. http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer. The key idea here is that EVERYBODY pays! No lawyers needed. You save up enough money to buy something, be it a new saw or a new home, you pay federal sales tax on it and it's yours forever! Everybody should be able to earn as much money as they can, buy what they want when they can afford to, plus the sales tax but then they OWN it! No more paying rent to live in your own home! Once you own it--it's YOURS!
And think of it: No more IRS! Of course there would have to be a bureau of some sort to deal with tax money, but it wouldn't need to be a behemoth like the IRS.
And here's where I'll end this post on taxes, for now.
Thanks for reading
Contact
nelsonjamesw@hotmail.com email
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004GW465S Author page at Amazon
http://morninginapril.weebly.com Website & Blog
https://www.facebook.com/#!/ Facebook
http://subron7.hubpages.com/ HubPages
Feel free to contact me. (Response is not guaranteed) (The world is full of psychos and wackos)
A reminder for when you go to Amazon to read digital books, mine and many other authors: Amazon has a free APP download that allows you to read your book on any electronic device, including PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.
Prices vary from $0.99-$2.99.
Occasionally I list one of my books as free for a day, sometimes more than a day. Look for those announcements on my blog, HubPages, Twitter, and Facebook
One last thing: When you visit my website, please check out the Freebies page.
The Powers-that-be did not want to lose their power to spend other peoples' money. I consider the 'Powers-that-be' are people able to hire lawyers and accountants to get them out of paying property taxes, or use property taxes to get them out of paying other taxes. Whatever, so began a struggle back and forth with articles and letters-to-the-editor for and against--as they named it--Measure 2.
The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota, has two political cartoonists. One of them compared Measure 2 to #2, what happens in the bathroom. I didn't think that was very classy, sent a letter-to-the-editor, told them what I thought, and whoever runs the Opinion page must have agreed, as my letter was published.
The 'Powers-that-be' must have gotten scared that we (the Measure 2 proponents) were going to win, for the 'Powers-that-be' went around the state--and out-of-state--and collected all kinds of money to advertise against us. To name the two largest contributors: $103,225, ND Association of Realtors, Bismarck (GROWTH Powers-that-be,) and $100,000, National Education Association, Washington, DC. (I have to wonder where their money came from...Taxes?) There were several others. The Powers-that-be ended up with $600,000. (Us proponents with $10-$50 donations, collected $21,760.) And guess what? When they started to use that money to put out scare-tactic television advertising--similar to what's going on today with the White House saying how bad this sequestration is going to be--yeah, we lost by a large margin.
So I don't forget , AARP, The National Association of Retired Persons, also Washington, DC, donated $20,000. Strange, I thought the AARP was an organization for helping the senior citizen, not going against them. Why do I say that? Because many senior citizens end up on just social security to pay their bills: A fixed income, right? One of the letters-to-the-editor brought out the fact that no little old ladies were being thrown out in the street. Well, that letter should have set us all straight.
He's probably right. I don't have the statistics, although I'm sure there are some. (People do lose their home to unpaid taxes.) The important thing here is that other fact: 'Fixed' income. So they weren't thrown into the street, but they also probably ended up not having much extra money to spend in their retirement. Then there's the senior citizen homestead credit discount after they're 65, but what about those years reaching 65? It can be a battle.
I signed that Measure 2 petition and wrote several other letters-to-the-editor. Some didn't get published. I wonder why. I didn't name-call. I made sure they were all short. But then our main regional newspaper, The Forum, Fargo, ND, stood solidly with the 'Powers-that-be.' That could be one reason.
That brings us up to date. Right now North Dakota is awash in new tax revenue. The western part of the state is being fracked and fracked and fracked, for oil. (They are talking thousands more drill sites.) And we have no real idea how that 'fracking' is affecting our ground water--I mean, come on! That water, with some kind of chemical in it is being forced underground to somehow get the oil out. Well, we don't know what it's doing down there. Is it just staying where we put it, or does it, as water does, start moving to who knows where? The area, population-wise, is growing frantically; it's going to need good water. The thing is, we need oil for power, but do we have to get it all out of the ground right NOW? And sell it right NOW? What about the future, meaning just a few years down the road? I don't mean decades or generations...but years. Oh yeah, the oil companies want to drill in the Killdeer Mountains too. I wonder how long Theodore Roosevelt National Park will be spared?
But, of course, the 'Powers-that-be' love the population-growth. It means more people to pay taxes, it means hiring more people to provide services to all that population-growth, and that requires even more taxes, and more growth, and more population, etc., etc., ETC! You see, as humankind sees it today, only 'growth' supports the economy. We haven't yet learned to do it any other way.
But, this post is not about 'growth' and what fracking for oil is doing to our environment.
It's about taxes, and how to spend all that money. I'm serious! Our legislators and local officials, and letter writers, all have ideas how to spend that money. I mean--my god! We've got it, we have to spend it! One legislator wanted to build our governor a new governor's mansion. Well, good old Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple put the brakes to that, saying the house was fine as is. Good for him!
I do have to give some of the legislators credit, though, as property tax relief is in the mix. So some of that money will go to help home owners pay their property taxes. But The Forum has already came out on the front page "Out with the old, in with the new?" That's the headline. The meat of the article was whether to build new schools or fix the old ones. I mean, in this country we don't seem to be able to build something to last more than a few decades. And, of course they aren't going to repair anything! That would embarrass the kids, and, worse, embarrass the parents. They want those architecturally-designed new schools to outshine their neighbor's schools.
So here's what's going to happen: Sure, some home owners will get a some temporary property tax relief, but that oil-tax money will NOT go on forever. In the meantime we will spend and spend and spend, mostly on schools: New schools, new coliseum-size gymnasiums, unnecessary feel-good courses and new teachers to teach those new courses, etc., ETC! Then, when the oil tax revenue ends, we will be right back where we started, only worse, because all that newness needs to keep going as is. The county will immediately send their assessors right back out to knock on the doors of property owners and increase their property taxes beyond what they ever were before!
So, people of North Dakota, let's not wait for that scenario to happen. Let's get a petition going again and, this time, let's us go outside the state, too, and gather up some of that 'outside' money. Surely there's other people out there in other states who agree that property taxes are beyond out-of-control. Some will remember what happened in North Dakota in 2012 because our fight made national news, and if they don't know about the outside-of-state money barons that helped cause our defeat, we will tell them.
Now comes the gist of this post: What's known as the 'Fair Tax.' The link takes us to a video discussing that very simple tax but only talks about replacing 'income' tax, but it could replace property tax too. http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer. The key idea here is that EVERYBODY pays! No lawyers needed. You save up enough money to buy something, be it a new saw or a new home, you pay federal sales tax on it and it's yours forever! Everybody should be able to earn as much money as they can, buy what they want when they can afford to, plus the sales tax but then they OWN it! No more paying rent to live in your own home! Once you own it--it's YOURS!
And think of it: No more IRS! Of course there would have to be a bureau of some sort to deal with tax money, but it wouldn't need to be a behemoth like the IRS.
And here's where I'll end this post on taxes, for now.
Thanks for reading
Contact
nelsonjamesw@hotmail.com email
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004GW465S Author page at Amazon
http://morninginapril.weebly.com Website & Blog
https://www.facebook.com/#!/ Facebook
http://subron7.hubpages.com/ HubPages
Feel free to contact me. (Response is not guaranteed) (The world is full of psychos and wackos)
A reminder for when you go to Amazon to read digital books, mine and many other authors: Amazon has a free APP download that allows you to read your book on any electronic device, including PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.
Prices vary from $0.99-$2.99.
Occasionally I list one of my books as free for a day, sometimes more than a day. Look for those announcements on my blog, HubPages, Twitter, and Facebook
One last thing: When you visit my website, please check out the Freebies page.
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