No on Proposition 1
Dear Editor: The Oct. 4 municipal election is fast approaching. If you have not yet weighed in on Proposition 1 I encourage you to take a good look at the proposed changes in property tax calculation and understand that the results to each and every community member will carry heavy consequences.
Whether or not you receive a property tax bill directly from the city YOU WILL BE IMPACTED! If you buy groceries locally be aware that the corporations who own the local grocery stores will see their property taxes increased by about $25,000. Don’t believe for a moment that this increase will not be passed along to you and me as consumers. The same is true of every business in our community. These wonderful folks who own businesses will not see fit to absorb the higher costs of doing business in Sitka. The very newspaper you are reading now will be impacted and I anticipate a rate increase in the near future.
Many Sitkans have and are leaving town because they can no longer afford to live here. Utility rates have increased noticeably and from what the utility director presented at the recent Assembly meeting we can look forward to a 17 percent increase in electric rates in the next few years. Of course water and sewer rates will follow suit. Where does it end?
There are solutions to some of the shortfalls in local government which have been brought to the attention of city management and the Assembly. They are presented with the good of our community in mind and have been brought forward with research, thought and the best of intentions. Unfortunately they have largely fallen on deaf ears or have been responded to that they are not at the top of the priority list so those who have come forward with them have left feeling defeated and as though our concerns are not of importance to management and the Assembly.
Please think about the impacts of Proposition 1 and not allow the Assembly to raise the cap on property tax as the ramifications will be great. VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 1. I am a fifth generation Sitkan.
Beverly Brill, Sitka
School Board
Dear Editor: I find it odd that the School Board and Superintendent Mary Wegner seem to think they have the authority to supersede the vote of the people, this with the appointment to the vacant seat on the School Board. With the resignation of President Tim Fulton effective Sept. 1 and knowing full well there are two great candidates running for one seat it’s a slap in the face of democracy. The two candidates have put their time in running through the election process and both should be seated.
R.I. Eliason, Sitka
Property Tax Hike
Dear Editor: Why does the CEO’s Assembly want to raise property taxes? It’s not for a balance budget, it’s not for excessive spending, what then is it for?
You might be thinking that government jobs are ‘‘good jobs,’’ but the truth is that they don’t produce wealth. Government employees are really good at pushing paper around and telling other people what to do, but in most instances they don’t actually make anything.
‘‘A wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government,’’ Thomas Jefferson.
‘‘If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers ‘conquered’ ... I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies ... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs,’’ Thomas Jefferson. Are we there yet? Property tax inflation.
We have a debt-based currency. That means for every note in circulation there is an IOU at the Federal Reserve accruing interest. It also guarantees somewhere somebody is in debt/poor/homeless.
The explanation is simple: growth is not a simple function of higher asset prices.
Property and land, does not labor for its asset value, human labor is to pay excessive taxes, fees, permits coded by the select few, as leverage goes up faster than income available to service debt.
This is critically important to understand. By increasing taxes, to generate additional revenue for the government, you decrease the available capital that could be used for productive investments. Since the government doesn’t want factories, office buildings, or oil wells, but rather cash, this forces the liquidation of productive investments thereby reducing capacity for economic growth.
The problem is a lack of ability for consumers to maintain a standard of living that is well beyond their earnings capability.
Debt is, by its very nature, a cancer on economic growth. As debt levels rise it consumes more capital by diverting it from productive investments into debt service. As debt levels spread through the system it consumes greater amounts of capital until it eventually kills the host.
Lydia McGraw, Sitka
No Taxes
Dear Editor: We like living in Sitka. We like small town living. And we don’t need, don’t even want, all the big city government ‘‘services.’’
NO to more taxes is YES to smaller and more careful governmental spending.
‘‘Government does not tax to get the money it needs; government always finds a need for the money it gets.’’
After being elected many, possibly most, government politicians quickly learn there’s nothing so fun as spending other people’s money.
The more you pay, the more they need. And it becomes harder and harder to support government in the style to which it becomes accustomed.
When things get tough families tighten their belts, but politicians try to raise taxes. Greek Proverb: Milk the cow, but do not pull off the udder.
Jean and Spike Arnold, Sitka
