Mirror, mirror on the wall…when will my tax bill begin to fall?
As I observe our local government conducting the town’s business, one can not help but notice the enormous amount of grant money funding the improvements of our day to day operations.
The sales pitch to accept this grant $$$ is that it will not cost the town tax $$$$$. What amazes me is we get fooled time and time again by this pitch. Schools, roads, water and waste water, police and fire all have taken and spent so called “free” grant $$$$.
And today…we have a big small town, with a big small government, very little commercial tax base and a whopping tax rate of $33.33/thousand.
And, our tax rate is about to take an even bigger jump up…or we will once again put off the necessary repairs and hope that future growth will come to save us.
A bit of the history behind government grant money:
“Prior to the Civil War, proposals to subsidize state and local activities were occasionally introduced in Congress, but they were routinely voted down or vetoed by presidents for being unconstitutional. In 1817, for example, President James Madison vetoed a bill that would have provided federal aid to construct roads and canals.3 In 1830, President Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill to provide aid for a road project in Kentucky arguing that it was of “purely local character” and that funding would be a “subversion of the federal system.”(read here)
The federal grant program began to take shape after J. D> Rockefeller’s coup to establish the IRS and Federal Reserve Bank in 1913. By 1930 there were 15 Federal Aid programs that exploded to 130 in 1960. Now there are over 1,100 federal Aid programs doling out over $561 BILIION in fy 2013. Only Social Security and National Defense receive more subsidies!
And small town America has feasted on those subsidies, causing town’s to overbuild their infrastructure far beyond their needs and means to maintain that overbuilt infrastructure.
And now, Henniker has about 50 miles of paved roads that needs to be replaced or resurfaced…all paid for by the property tax payer…leaving us only one recourse…go to the bank and borrow money!
OHB