By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
I need to get a little personal in this article. Unfortunately, friends and relatives and most politicians are incorrectly stating that if we abolish the property taxes we can no longer pay for police, fire, roads repairs, etc. at the local level. This is quite a scare tactic! Nothing could be further from the truth. We never said that we will not pay for services rendered. It is just a matter of how payments are to be made and for what services.
Here is my current property tax bill. I have circled the amount due Concord Township. This is the only figure that I receive from the three Trustees (Morgan McIntosh, Amy Lucci, and Carl Dorndorfer) and the Concord Administrator (my friend, Andy Rose). Trying to get detailed answers on police and fire costs is rather challenging.
What I would like to know is how much I am paying for the individual services in the Township? The only information I have on the services is the Auditor’s Schedule A for Concord Township. This schedule provides a list of the property tax levies currently being collected by the Township.
I believe that the citizens are entitled to receive a breakdown of the services provided and the citizen’s share of the services. It is appropriate to determine how our Township compares in efficiency against other Lake County communities. Here is an example of what the Township, Municipality (or the County Auditor) could send to every taxpayer in their taxing district.
This service fee invoice would be collected as the property tax is currently collected with one major difference. The fees are based on some other criteria (home size, number of people in the home, etc,) and not based on home valuation.
As I have previously said to Administrator Rose: “Send me a bill, Andy”.
Property ownership is the foundation of our freedom and liberty. The government should not be able to foreclose on our homes because the government cannot live within their budget. The State legislators would have to change the Ohio Revised Code to give more flexibility to the townships and other municipalities allowing them to assess fees for the services. If the taxpayers does not use the services, then there are no associated cost to the taxpayer.
Our current property tax system is overly complex, unfair, far too expensive to administer, and having an adverse impact on homeownership throughout the State of Ohio. We are, currently, just renters from the government.
The public sector is outgrowing the private sector’s ability to pay for the services. Our system of governance has many duplications and redundances at local levels causing bureaucratic bloat that continues to hinder the growth of Ohio. We need to sound the alarm for new leadership that can disarm the status quo in this State, and restore our freedom and liberty.
Categories: Lake, Ohio Counties, Real Estate Taxes, Uncategorized