Another plan to pick pockets of citizens

Along comes another special interest group to push a dumb idea on local people for the sake of private profit. This time it's the highway engineers who want to make Ohio 16 a toll road. Can you imagine a toll road through the heart of Newark and Licking County? Sheesh.

A representative of the Ohio Engineers Association told a gathering of officials from seven Ohio counties this was the only option for pushing westward on the Columbus-to-Pittsburgh connector; that no other funds are available.

He failed to mention who, exactly, needs such a connector. He failed to mention that, if and when motorists ever need such a connector, the road would be funded exactly as are other highway construction projects.

But the idea for this thing doesn't come from motorists' needs. It comes from profiteers like the engineers and other profiteers up and down the connector.

The engineers' mouthpiece said, according to the Advocate report, that it would be difficult to get support of local officials. He failed to mention that the reason is nobody wants or needs such a monstrosity - expensive to build and expensive and inconvenient to use.

Though he didn't commit himself in the Advocate report, likely the engineers could count on Doug Smith. He's the Licking County commissioner who so far has dodged voter retaliation for his part in placing a sales tax on citizens without their consent. For elected officials to back the idea of the toll road would require they "not think of it as impediment to the next election," he was quoted as saying. Right. They may not be as lucky as Commissioner Smith.

Will Tim Bubb survive in the Political Game of Chicken?

Lest voters failed to pick up on it in yesterday's print edition of the Advocate, two candidates for county commissioner said they would work to remove the 1/2% sales tax imposed without voter approval by Commissioners Bubb and Smith.

Bubb and Smith were playing Political Game of Chicken, in which elected officials bet their careers that voters won't remember instances of insolence. I think they will remember, but we'll see.

Mark Van Buren, running against Brad Feightner, and Doug Moreland, running against Tim Bubb, have pledged to roll back that tax. You can go to the Advocate's on-line voter guide and compare candidates' positions on this tax thanks to the editors, whose first question to all commissioner candidates was: "Do you agree with the decision to increase the sales tax two years ago without voter input? Would you consider eliminating it?."

If voters are smart enough to replace Bubb with Moreland, that will leave only Doug Smith as the commissioner who voted to stuff citizens by giving them an end-run on taxes. (Last commissioner election, Smith did win the Game when voters re-elected him.) And Mark Van Buren over Feightner is a good bet, even if it weren't for the tax issue.

My previous rants on abuse of power by Bubb and Smith are linked here.

Newark School administrators: You don't have to trick us with an August vote

It must seem to regular readers of these Observations that I am dead-set against any new tax. I am not. I am dead-set against the chicanery used by government and schools to get income by tricking voters or otherwise denying them the right to vote on tax matters.

Classic case of this was the sales-tax increase by County Commissioners Tim Bubb and Doug Smith. They simply refused to hear voters asking to have a voice in the matter.

City officials regularly ignore the wishes of the majority in order to avoid the majority opinion on tax issues, most recently the decision by council to skim off another $10 per auto license plate sale, in spite of the fact that voters earlier had sent a clear message of their disapproval.

No sooner did taxpayers get that jammed into their orifice than the Newark School District board sends notice it might attempt to end-run voters in an August repeat of the failed tax-levy request, thinking that the majority of what few voters might show up for such an election will be parents and teachers, thus giving the majority of people who will have to pay for it yet another shafting.

This special election could cost the school district as much as $40,000 to produce, according to the Advocate report. That same $40,000 used for the good of the people would provide many miles of school bussing the district claimed it can't afford.

For people who are supposed to be smart enough to oversee the community's main educational factory, they don't have much going for them.

Worse, they see their constituency as one dumb, numb, mass of people too helpless and worthless to defend against another stuffing by the school board intelligentsia. That is the theory on which consideration of an August tax vote is predicated.

The news for these "public servants" is that there are many folks just like me, thousands maybe.

And what we expect from you is for you to convince us of a two things before you come to us for more money.

First is that you are wisely spending the money you have, that you are not wasting it on high-priced and useless administrators and employee wages and benefits that are out of line with what other people make;

and second that after you have cleaned house and eliminated all the useless people and programs you have acquired over the years that you need more of our money to educate (not entertain and not babysit) our children.

When you get that done, you won't have to try to trick us with an August vote.

New way for government to feed on itself, but who will win the Game of Chicken?

The fact that two county commissioners - Tim Bubb and Doug Smith - could impose a new tax on citizens without giving them a chance to vote on it seems to be the new way for government to feed on itself. No input from voters needed, thank you.

Likewise with the imposition of an auto tag tax to be considered again by Newark City Council. No need for voters to decide, thank you (though voters spoke clearly and negatively in a referendum to former Mayor Bain's first attempt to sidestep them on this tax).

The Advocate has done a spectacularly thorough job of reporting that Smith and Bubb have a majority's grip on this sales tax bite and that the Mayor Diebold and some city council members are just slobbering over the prospect of getting a yet another auto tax past the voters.

Voters have been well-informed by the Advocate this time, for the first time in many years. In the articles Commissioners debate sales tax and City Council mixed on increasing license plate tax reporter Amy Picard has laid it all out for readers on these complex matters.

The only omission has been any reference to the history of all this and how voters are being avoided by government representatives. Namely that Bubb and Smith jammed the sales tax through, that Bain tried to stuff voters for the tag tax, it got referendum-ed, council came back and reinstated a $5 tax anyway, and now they're talking about doing it again, maybe for more.

It is incredible that they would consider trying to get away with this crap. It's not just the addional cost of living in this area, but because it's being done without a vote.

The reason they've been getting away with this screwing is because voters don't know about it, don't care about it, will not say anything, and won't remember it until next election.

Or will they? It's the ol' game of chicken - bureaucrats vs. voters - bureaucrat-scammers lose if voters remember; they win if voters forget. I wouldn't place any bets on the game, but we voters are - thanks to better Advocate reportage - getting smarter all the time.

Will the tax man survive?

Tim Bubb was one of two county commissioners who voted to increase the sales tax without voter approval. When he and Commissioner Doug Smith agreed to make an end-run on constituents they were playing the game of political chicken. That game bets the politician's career that voters' memories are so short that they won't remember next election day that they've been stiffed.

Doug Smith won the first round of political chicken when he got re-elected. Likely Tim will win his too. Nevertheless ...

Til the end of time, I will see it as my civic duty to remind voters when Tim or Doug run for commissioner of the way in which the two of them increased taxes without voter approval. It is still offensive to me that they did this, and I remember it every time I think of local sales taxes and particularly when I pay for big-ticket items.

On Tuesday, when voters select their party's candidates, they would do well to review what each of them has to say about this matter. The Voter's Guide available on the Advocate web site reports how each of them answer the question: "Do you agree with the decision to increase the sales tax two years ago without voter input? Would you consider eliminating it?"

What candidates say predicts with great accuracy how they feel about the management of public money. When they answer the question directly and to your liking, then place your bet. If they talk around the issue, or don't answer it, or blow off more political hyperbole then you deserve what you get if you vote for them.

Go make waves, new county commissioner

When local Democrats appointed Mark Van Buren as county commissioner to replace Marcia Phelps, they seem to have made an excellent choice.

That he already has 10 years' experience as a township trustee is a good thing but it is secondary to his attitudes toward good government that he mentioned in an acceptance speech to the Democratic Central Committee.

Among them was that he would do everything he could to lower the high sales taxes (imposed by commissioners Tim Bubb and Doug Smith without a vote by citizens) because working people are being penalized by them.

"When dollars are coming out of our pockets, we should be able to vote on it," he said according to the Advocate report.

Van Buren said he would attempt to open better lines of communication between the county board of commissioners and the citizens, promising to make it a full-time job.

Attaboy, Mark. Go make waves.

NSD wants opinions on a new tax. Here's one.

Newark School District officials are debating what form of increased tax burden Newark voters are most likely to swallow. They should read what I wrote here in January, 2006 about the financial burden that goes with living in Newark Ohio, remembering that since 2006 it has only gotten worse.

Government, monopolies are gonna get you: Bend over, taxpayer-consumer
1/9/06

My health insurance premium went up $155 per month this year, courtesy government policies, health care providers, and retirement insurance managers.

My property taxes will go up about 10 percent this year due to increased valuations, courtesy of Ohio government.

Presumably this is on top of the new school tax of $180 per year per $100,000 property tax for the next 28 years, courtesy Newark Schools and voters.

My American Electric Power rates are going up by as much as $72 per year, courtesy of this monopoly and the Ohio government.

My gasoline bills have more than doubled in the past several months, courtesy of George Bush and the energy monopolies.

My Alltel rates could go up by 20 percent per year, courtesy of this monopoly and the Ohio government.

I would have been paying $15 a year more for auto licenses, courtesy of Newark City Council and Mayor Bain, if it hadn’t been for citizens’ revolt at the polls.

I am paying 1/2-cent more county sales tax, courtesy of County Commissioners Tim Bubb and Doug Smith who levied the tax without seeking voter approval.

I am paying 12 percent more for sewer services this year, courtesy Newark City Council.

I will be paying 3 per cent more for water service this year, courtesy of Newark City Service Director Tim Weisert, according to a published statement attributed to him.

I will be paying God knows how much for a new storm water utility program by the city, courtesy city council and Mayor Bain.

All this on top of a half-percent income tax increase not so long ago for city police and fire services, courtesy of city council and Newark voters.

And how much more income am I going to have this year to pay for all this? Not even as much as last year, and I bet there are many others in the same situation.

The plight of county smokers vs. the plight of those who just breathe county air

As though further proof is needed, yesterday's Advocate page-one report on the plight of smoking county employees proves again that we live in a society gone mad. Let us count the ways ...

... anyone who would deliberately suck into their lungs any quantity of tar, ammonia, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and about 4,000 (really!) other ingredients, most or all of them unhealthful, has gone mad.

... anyone who would pay $4.45 for a pack of killer cigarettes (Ohio average) has gone mad, especially when you can roll your own for a lot less.

... anti-smokers who are so artificially touchy about the tiniest waft of cigarette smoke in their presence have gone mad.

... voters who passed the state smoking ban in public places, making them now only partially public, have gone mad.

... smokers who didn't do anything much to preserve their freedoms before that election proved themselves to have gone mad.

... health "gurus" such as as Joe Ebel, county health commissioner, and County Commissioner Doug Smith, who continue to do a war dance over miniscule amounts of second-hand smoke, while continuing to ignore the colossal dump that Fiberglas takes on Licking County 24/7, have gone mad.

... Advocate reporters and managers, who think the plight of a few county employees without a smoking haven and the reaction to this plight by gone-mad health "gurus" - and not Fiberglas pollution - merits a page-one report, have gone mad.