Tri State's disapproval rating

According to SurveyUSA, a firm that conducts opinion polls for many television news sources has come out with it opinion ratings of American governors. Topping the list was Mike Rounds of South Dakota. Topping the list of Tri-state Governors was Indiana's Mitch Daniels, weighing in at number 37, with an approvaql rating of 45%. Kentucky's Ernie Fletcher ranked 47 with an approval rating of 33%. And last was Ohio's Governor Bob Taft with an approval rating of 17%. The 49th spot is held by Alaska's Frank Murkowski with an approval rating of 30%. Even Louisiana's Kathleen Blanco ranks 42, all of this despite the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina.

Pass the Pork

This week, I was inspired to write something about John Stossel’s recent ‘Give Me a Break’ story. It was about Congress and all of the pork it doles out. Many of these projects are of concern to local communities, yet many of those projects are funded by the efforts of members of congress in an attempt to gain support from special interests. Looking through www.CAGW.org (Citizens Against Government Waste) you see that Congress has spent:

• $50,000,000 for an indoor rainforest
• $2,000,000 to re-develop the Cincinnati riverfront
• $2,000,000 to build a sugar based ethanol biorefinery
  

When Congress passed the Tsunami relief bill, $25,000,000 went to a fish hatchery in Montana! Think about it, a politician who wants to vote ‘no’ to this provision, must vote ‘no’ to the entire bill. If a sitting politician were to vote ‘no’ to this bill because they object to the needless pork, they run the risk of not showing compassion (something that hurts a re-election campaign), because they must vote ‘no’ for tsunami relief.

All of this pork adds up, $9,698,986,720 in 2005 to be exact.

Not only is this a waste of money, but money is not spent where it is needed. It is spent where a politician stands to gain the most politically.

In 2001, "Scientific American" ran an article predicting that a major hurricane could break the levies and put most of the city 20 feet underwater. As a result, Louisiana asked congress for $27,000,000 to strengthen the levies. They didn’t get it. Congress explained that they did not have the money to undertake such a project. However, they did give Alabama $200,000 for a peanut festival!

With all of this money coming from Washington, libertarians often ask, why are they taking our money, only to give it back to us? It makes more sense for the money to stay here. Right now, Congress takes our money. If a community needs the money back, they have to lobby congress for it back. This process not only adds a layer of bureaucracy, but it costs cities money because cities now must hire professional lobbyists. All of this is needed to convince a congressman from Kentucky to support $18,000 to build a smoking booth at a New Jersey airport.

If the money could have stayed in New Orleans, then they could have maintained the levies with less red-tape. And with lower national taxes, insurance companies may have had been more willing to help out with the project. After all, the insurance companies lost a fortune because those levies broke. But instead, much of our money is controlled by incompetent politicians who think they know what is best for us.

Visit www.CAGW.org. See for yourself where our federal income taxes are being spent.

Property Taxes and Important Action Alert!

As I write this, I have not heard official word, but it looks like the citizens of Cincinnati will once again be able to vote on an issue to eliminate Cincinnati's property tax. The petition signatures were submitted and were earlier this week validated by the Board of Elections. The same question was on the ballot in 2004 and it failed by 3% (51.5% against vs 48.5% for). This will rollback the Cincinnati portion of the property tax over the next nine years until it is eliminated. The savings for the people and businesses in Cincinnati will be small (a $100,000 home will be taxed $100 less per year, and that is after 9 years) and the city of Cincinnati will gradually lose a small chunk of its revenue (less than 10% of the general fund), but I do think this could be a landmark issue if passed. I say that because I am a firm believer that permanent change does not happen overnight.

Consider this:

-In 1960, the income tax in Cincinnati was .5%. The sales tax was 3%. Now, the rates are 2.1% and 6.5% respectively. They were increased in small increments (usually .5% at a time). Keep in mind that people often consider the 1% income tax that Blue Ash has as a bargain.
-In 1935, the Social Security and Medicare taxes were 1% (with a 1% employer match). Now, they are 7.65% (with the same employer match).

In both cases, we got from here to there in a series of small increment increases.

And what has this brought for Cincinnati? Cincinnati was the 8th largest American city in 1900 with over 500,000. The 1970 census still had Cincinnati with over 500,000 citizens. The 2000 census has Cincinnati with 320,000 citizens. Soon , Toledo will be larger than Cincinnati. And yet, the entire Greater Cincinnati area is growing. It shows that people want to live in this area, yet, they want to stay out of the city.

For the city, this is giving abandoned buildings and run down houses (because the homeowners are leaving). This drives down property values and forces the city to raise other taxes, in order to keep its revenue.

For businesses, it means that they can be more profitable by leaving the city. Remember, a business will sometimes own its building. If not, they rent from somebody who does. If there is a property tax to pay, then it will be paid by the business, one way or the other. It directly affects the bottom line. If they can avoid that expense by moving to Clermont County, Harrison, or Northern Kentucky, you know they will do that. You won't hear about P&G or Fifth Third leaving over this tax (it would be too difficult for them to move), but an office with 5 employees can load up a U-haul and set up shop somewhere else in a matter of hours. You never hear about a business with 5 employees leaving the city. But remember, when 100 such businesses leave the city, that means we have 500 fewer jobs. That's a huge econimic impact, but it gets no attention.

It is time to undo this.

This property tax rollback will not save that much money. Yet, it is a rollback that city hall can afford. It took a long time, and lots of little victories for tax and spenders to get to be the big government we have today. If we don't start chipping away at it now, it will only continue to get larger, in small increments. This is a vital step in reversing this trend.

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As Libertarians, I often find it hard to get people to be active. I have learned that this is not unique to Libertarians, that is how a lot of politically minded people are. However, if there is one chance you have to be active, September 14 at 9:00am would be the time. The US 6th Circuit court of Appeals will be hearing our ballot access case.

Currently Ohio has some of the most restrictive ballot access laws in the country. In fact, it is easier to get on the ballot in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Russia than it is in Ohio. The Libertarian Party of Ohio is asking for a large Libertarian presence at our hearing. Judges are supposed to judge a case on the merits of the evidence, however, many of them can be swayed by a large presence in the court room.

It will be held at the Federal Courthouse, across the street from Fountain Square, in downtown Cincinnati. It will last less than an hour, so you can be back at work by lunch time.

Again, if there is only one chance for you to get your hands dirty and help out the party, this would be the perfect time.

A Story floating around the Net

I think this story summerizes Libertarianism. Those of us living in Cincinnati can certainly relate; that is why Northern Kentucky is moving ahead and we are stuck with an underdeveloped riverfront and a bunch of old, unkept buildings in our urban core.

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse in 2005, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in the United States, and said, "Once again, the earth has become wicked and overpopulated, and I see the end of all flesh before me. What you saw last week in New Orleans was just a sample. Build another Ark and save two of every living thing along with a few good humans."
He Gave Noah the blueprints, saying, "You have six months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights."
Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard But there was no Ark. "Noah!" He roared, "I'm about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?"
"Forgive me, Lord," begged Noah, "but things have changed. I needed a building permit I've been arguing with the inspector about the need for a sprinkler system. My neighbors claim that I've violated the neighborhood zoning laws by building the Ark in my yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the Development Appeal Board for a decision. Then the Department of Transportation demanded a bond be posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passageway for the Ark's move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they couldn't find anything in the regulations to cover that.
"Getting the wood was another problem There's a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls -- but no go!
"When I started gathering the animals, I got sued by PETA. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodation was too restrictive, and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.
"Then the EPA ruled that I couldn't build the Ark until they'd conducted an environmental impact study on your Proposed flood.
"I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I'm supposed to hire for my building crew.
"Immigration and Naturalization is checking the green-card status of most of the people who want to work.
"The trade unions say I can't use my sons. They insist I have to hire only Union workers with Ark-building experience.
"To make matters worse, the IRS seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with a cargo of endangered species.
"So, forgive me, Lord, but it looks like it would take at least ten years for me to finish this Ark."
Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky.
Noah looked up in wonder and asked, "You mean You're not going to destroy the world?"
"No," said the Lord, "looks like the government has already beaten me to it."

Private vs Government help with Katrina

In Harry Browne's 1996, Why Government Doesn't Work, Harry argues that government cannot work. They are so riddled in red tape, and they don't even have an incentive to do a good job, or to find a better way to do it. It is not even the people involved, it is the system that causes the problems. Most people have waited in a long lineat the BMV. Many people have been put on hold for a long time when calling the IRS, and only to receive wrong information. When we deal with Government agencies on a personal level, we often see how ineffciant they are. Why do we assume that the ones that we don't deal with would be any better? Why would you rely on such a system to make your life better?

Katrina will certainly go down in history as one of the worst hurricanes. We forget most names of hurricanes. We remember the name Andrew, because of the devistation it did to Florida in 92. Katrina will be like that. What is worse is that the videos coming from New Orleans have a haunting resemblence to the videos of the Tsunami. I also find it weird that aid from FEMA (our national agency that is suppossed to help out people who are victims of big disasters) cannot make its way to the Superdome and the Convention Center; however, reporters are down there (they are the ones filming everything).

While listening to a radio station this morning, they just finished a big fundraiser to get aid to the Mississippi Delta region. In 13 hours, they brought in 40 tons of food (or a number around there) and $200,000 in donations. The trucks left Cincinnati at 9:00pm on Thursday. I would guess that it got there by noon. By nightfall, a lot of people will have lifesaving food and clean water. The federal government, after 4 days, is finally starting to provide help. So why are we sending our tax money to Washington DC so that they can send it right back to the cities to do a bad job at helping victims of catastrophies? It seems like the private sector has found a much faster and cheaper way to help out. You see, that radio station had no redtape to trip over. Why do we demand that government help us out when businesses seem to be doing a better job at providing help?