From Patrick Henry / January 8, 2025
Thanks to Commissioner John Plecnik for being the loudest voice to stand up for our seniors.
Brian:
Thank you for all that you are doing to protect seniors from skyrocketing property taxes. I would appreciate you including this article below on your website to further encourage your readers to petition our state legislators and to thank Commissioner Plecnik for being the loudest voice to stand up for our seniors
SUPPORT COMMISSIONER PLECNIK SUPPORTING SENIORS
Another year has come and gone, and another year without any tax relief from the Ohio General Assembly. But it is this year that many of us will feel the sting of higher property taxes – not from a vote of the people – but from the sexennial appraisal of our property. State legislators have known about this for years, but did nothing to help alleviate us, especially our seniors and others on fixed incomes. Here in Lake County, I know of only one political leader who has stood up and challenged the Ohio General Assembly to do the right thing – Commissioner John Plecnik.
Some may see it as ironic that Commissioner Plecnik is a tax professor who consistently advocates for cutting taxes. He fought to lower sewer fees as a councilman for Willoughby Hills. When the Lake County Board of Commissioners passed a sales tax increase, he led the charge to repeal it. And it was repealed as soon as he returned to the Board of Commissioners. Now he is the only member of the Board of County Commissioners we can feel confident will continue to oppose tax increases. And he is the loudest voice in Lake County politics backing up our seniors and strongly calling for tax relief at the state level.
I have watched our political leaders for a long time and one thing I’ve learned is that one of the strongest forces in politics is inertia. You’ve heard it before – the most difficult thing to kill is a government program. The U.S. Department of Education started in 1979 and the very next year Ronald Reagan was elected with a campaign promise to end it. The Department of Education is still here. Same thing with Obamacare – passed in 2010 and the same year Republicans took control of the U.S. House on a promise to repeal it but it’s still here. It’s all a result of inertia. Same thing is happening at the state level with property taxes – nobody at the State House really like the current system, but nobody really wants to take on the flak for changing it.
When it comes to property tax relief we have to break the inertia. We need to demand property relief NOW. We need to call, e-mail, snail mail, fax, X and Facebook comment our state representatives and senators. We need to send letters to the editor and share posts like this one on social media. And we need to publicly thank those political leaders like Commissioner Plecnik who are standing up for us.
There’s another lesson I’ve learned watching politics all these years and it’s the two things politicians love -money and popularity. We may not be able to affect much of the money going into the issue of tax relief. But we can do a lot to show how popular the effort to provide property tax relief to seniors is. Which is another reason why it is so important to support Commissioner Plecnik even if he can’t directly change the state law regarding property taxes. The more we show our support for Commissioner Plecnik for standing up on this issue, the more other politicians will take notice. And as more politicians take the same line and we show them the same level of support, the more likely tax relief will become a reality. That’s how you break the inertia.
NO MORE TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!
Categories: Community Activism, Free Speech Zone, Lake, Real Estate Taxes