Well not Washington really, but I went to county sponsored community meeting which is almost as bad.
Lynette and I recently attended a community meeting where the County Manager and his shill (I believe they call them “consultants”) were explaining a new proposed “fee” for property owners.
(Yeah, yeah, I know what some of my fellow anarchists are shouting now. Shut up and let me type…)
Of course as many at the meeting recognized a government fee is really a tax. And there is a law in place saying that our property taxes can only be increased so much each year, and of course the public officials want to spend more so they look for ways to get around the law.
Our neighbors pointed out that this was obviously a new tax and our taxes are supposed to be capped.
The two “gentleman” making the presentation patiently explained that the courts had decided that this kind of bill legally qualified as a fee, not a tax, and was not subject to the same legal requirements as a tax.
“That doesn’t make it right,” Lynette told them.
They stopped short and their eyes went wide. I’m not kidding – they looked at her as if she was from another planet. I guess the shorthand is to say their jaws dropped, I believe their mouths visibly relaxed.
County Manager and his shill react to Lynette's keen observation.
What could it possibly mean to say that having a measure blessed by a court didn’t make it right?
This was the first time I’d been to such a meeting in many years and I decided that my neighbors might not be ready to fully digest an allusion to Dred Scott at this precise moment…
For instance...
Instead I offered a few short and simple (and very polite) arguments why the “gentlemen” were obviously full of shit.
One of the “selling points” was that it wasn’t just it wouldn’t just come out of our pockets, schools and other government properties would also be assessed!
“But that comes out of our pockets too”, I observed.
“Well – yes”, they reluctantly agreed. Then they told a “funny story” about how government agencies were the most delinquent parties when it came to paying such taxes. Some people laughed, as the “gentlemen” could reliably predict, but hopefully some others could see that the prospect of giving them more money wasn’t all that amusing…
John T. Kennedy
