Auto tag tax: Bend over, Bunky

Newark voters took a major slap in September 2006 when their elected representatives on City Council reinstated part of the same tax on auto license plates that citizens rejected by 58-42 percent in the November '05 election. Bend over, Bunky, it could happen again.

That kind of illicit representation doesn't bother Council Member Irene Kennedy or Mayor Diebold, chief among those floating a new gimme-more-taxes balloon. They seem more than willing to stuff voters again.

Why now, when citizens struggle with the burdens placed on them by recession, inflation and $3.35 gasoline? Well, now because this is March and the streets - as they always are in March - are full of potholes. This, to the simple-minded, opens the way to demand more tax money because gee whiz we all want these holes fixed and gee whiz we don't have any money.

Never mind that City Council just dug itself a million-dollar-a-year gold mine when it started charging citizens for transportation to the hospital in taxpayer-owned trucks manned by taxpayer-paid employees, a project pushed to completion by then-Councilman Diebold.

That new gold mine, however, has been tapped in a big way by the new round of pay raises that council started last May when it jacked up the police chief's pay. Mr. Tax-The-Hell-Outta-Citizens Diebold was on the cutting edge of that move, by the way.

Here's the string he's pulling this time, as recorded by the Advocate 3/11/08: "...Diebold said only $450,000 is slotted (for paving) because the city owes $650,000 for debt reduction including payments for new fire trucks, police cruisers, plow trucks, a patching machine and a grater."

Oh, silly me, I thought Newark citizens recently voted a half-percent income tax to accommodate the needs of our safety forces.

Which points to the basis of the problem here. No matter how much money citizens hand over to those they believe are representing their interests in government, the superior politicians among them - folks like Diebold and Kennedy - will figure a way to spend it and ask for more. Reigning in their expenses, doing more with less - as is required of citizens themselves - has never been and never will be an option.

From fat cats in government - the Diebolds and the Kennedys - the word is to bend over and stay there, Bunky.