I promised new Contributors after the election. Please welcome our first one, Frank Friday. His first post is: NO-TAX DAVIDS CLOBBER GOLIATH.
NO-TAX DAVIDS CLOBBER GOLIATH
If you needed any proof just how powerful anti-tax sentiment can be, look no farther than Louisville, Ky. and the November 6 referendum defeat of a proposed library tax.
Led by Democrat Mayor Jerry Abramson and some liberal Republican elected officials, tax supporters in May of this year proposed creating a separate library taxing district that would rake in $40 million a year, and be run by appointees of the Mayor.That would also have created a windfall of over $17 million per year in current library funds the Mayor would keep for himself in perpetuity. Abramson recruited a galaxy of elite businessmen, sports stars, and celebrities to campaign for it, and even had the wording of the proposal couched in a highly deceptive way, so no mention of the word tax was made; voters were just asked if they wanted to see improvements at the library. The left-wing Courier-Journal newspaper editorial page was an almost hysterical supporter as well.
If that weren’t enough, the library itself spent hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars in a soft campaign to promote the scheme and had its employees out soliciting signatures for the referendum, telling them their only hope for salary increases was to help pass the measure. The library even morphed a children’s summer reading program into the campaign; instead of giving the kids prizes for reading books, they received yard signs that seemed to promote the referendum. It all looked unstoppable.
But it was too much to take for a trio of ordinary citizens. Republican Councilman Hal Heiner, reminding everyone that Abramson had been promising for years to build several new libraries without raising taxes, put forward his own non-tax plan. Ex pro-football player/businessman Chris Thieneman led an opposition committee to explain the other side of the issue, carefully calling his group, SUPPPORT THE LIBRARY, NOT THE TAX. Norman Morton, a former library employee, who had quit over the outrageous misuse of the library’s resources for politics, spilled the beans on what was happening.
With just a month to go before the election, and the library tax proponents having a money edge of about $1 million to $40,000 the contest took off, but not as expected. Using free media, talk radio, automated phone calls, the internet, and some brilliant TV commercials featuring the Mayor's own words against him, the tax opponents scored heavily.
Louisville is a high tax city with unimpressive services, so the citizens were ready to be skeptical of the tax hike plan. As they got to know more about the scheme, anger just boiled over. The tax proponents were stunned as the campaign went on, spending more and more money on fancy TV commercials which only reinforced the controversy. The library’s director was virtually in hiding for the last month of the campaign rather than talk to the press about misuse of public money.
The final tally was an amazing 67% NO to 33% YES. Every part of the town, from the majority black West End, to the blue-collar south side to the affluent eastern suburbs, went against it, with just a few ultra-liberal pockets going narrowly for it.
The Mayor and his allies now have to glumly look forward to Councilman Heiner and his colleagues making good on their broken promises, and delivering a new library system, but without raising taxes.
The Louisville vote demonstrates once again ordinary tax payers have had enough; they want to see government work hard and innovate in delivering services, not just gouge their citizens at every turn.
Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, KY.
________________________________________
If you needed any proof just how powerful anti-tax sentiment can be, look no farther than Louisville, Ky. and the November 6 referendum defeat of a proposed library tax.
Led by Democrat Mayor Jerry Abramson and some liberal Republican elected officials, tax supporters in May of this year proposed creating a separate library taxing district that would rake in $40 million a year, and be run by appointees of the Mayor.That would also have created a windfall of over $17 million per year in current library funds the Mayor would keep for himself in perpetuity. Abramson recruited a galaxy of elite businessmen, sports stars, and celebrities to campaign for it, and even had the wording of the proposal couched in a highly deceptive way, so no mention of the word tax was made; voters were just asked if they wanted to see improvements at the library. The left-wing Courier-Journal newspaper editorial page was an almost hysterical supporter as well.
If that weren’t enough, the library itself spent hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars in a soft campaign to promote the scheme and had its employees out soliciting signatures for the referendum, telling them their only hope for salary increases was to help pass the measure. The library even morphed a children’s summer reading program into the campaign; instead of giving the kids prizes for reading books, they received yard signs that seemed to promote the referendum. It all looked unstoppable.
But it was too much to take for a trio of ordinary citizens. Republican Councilman Hal Heiner, reminding everyone that Abramson had been promising for years to build several new libraries without raising taxes, put forward his own non-tax plan. Ex pro-football player/businessman Chris Thieneman led an opposition committee to explain the other side of the issue, carefully calling his group, SUPPPORT THE LIBRARY, NOT THE TAX. Norman Morton, a former library employee, who had quit over the outrageous misuse of the library’s resources for politics, spilled the beans on what was happening.
With just a month to go before the election, and the library tax proponents having a money edge of about $1 million to $40,000 the contest took off, but not as expected. Using free media, talk radio, automated phone calls, the internet, and some brilliant TV commercials featuring the Mayor's own words against him, the tax opponents scored heavily.
Louisville is a high tax city with unimpressive services, so the citizens were ready to be skeptical of the tax hike plan. As they got to know more about the scheme, anger just boiled over. The tax proponents were stunned as the campaign went on, spending more and more money on fancy TV commercials which only reinforced the controversy. The library’s director was virtually in hiding for the last month of the campaign rather than talk to the press about misuse of public money.
The final tally was an amazing 67% NO to 33% YES. Every part of the town, from the majority black West End, to the blue-collar south side to the affluent eastern suburbs, went against it, with just a few ultra-liberal pockets going narrowly for it.
The Mayor and his allies now have to glumly look forward to Councilman Heiner and his colleagues making good on their broken promises, and delivering a new library system, but without raising taxes.
The Louisville vote demonstrates once again ordinary tax payers have had enough; they want to see government work hard and innovate in delivering services, not just gouge their citizens at every turn.
Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, KY.
________________________________________
Labels: Constitutional Rights, Freedom, Kentucky politics, Political economics
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 1:54 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home