Not Optional Anymore

From the Des Moines Register:

Iowa will hike its sales tax by 1 cent per dollar, replacing local-option sales taxes that each of Iowa’s 99 counties collect for school infrastructure, under a bill signed into law today by Gov. Chet Culver.

For most Iowans, there will be no out-of-pocket difference because one tax is simply replacing another that they pay already.

But the important difference between the tax is one of financial fairness, advocates of the proposal have said.

The Iowa Legislature and Governor Chet Culver basically said "Screw The Taxpayers" and took away the option of eliminating the tax in their area if they felt the local school district was spending the money the wrong way.

Here's the Register's spin on behalf of the Des Moines Public School District:

...school districts like Des Moines have long supported the statewide tax proposal largely because education officials will not have to ask voters to renew the 1-cent tax in 2010. In addition, Des Moines will continue to get its full amount collected in the county until the 10-year local-option tax expires and is replaced by a statewide sales tax.

Even if voters renewed the local option tax in Polk County in 2010, they would have to share their collections on a statewide level...

Is reporter Jason Clayworth of the Des Moines Register smoking crack?

He knows damn well that voters in Des Moines would have rejected the renewal of the local option sales tax there.

It took Des Moines three times between 1996 and 1999 before finally passing it in 1999 with a margin of 43 votes. And there was lots of bad blood and mistrust after all the broken promises by former Stupidertendent Eric Witherspoon following the imposing of the tax.

Meanwhile, a Register reader sends in this note to the paper:

It’s fun to read the editorial board’s reasons for the failure of the vote to build a new Polk County Courthouse. It shows how disconnected they are from public opinion.

The voters of Polk County no longer trust elected officials to spend their money. As we watch the cash go out for CIETC and the CIETC trial, why should we vote to give the county more money to fritter away?

Is it any wonder why politicians are so hated?

Iowa politicians burned through the tobacco shakedown money in record time. Everybody who spent that money should be in prison.

But the Des Moines Register still acts like they can spin for that pile of liars under the gold dome. Fine with me. How much is the Register's circulation and ad revenue declining? We'll see who gets the last laugh.

You know, how did Iowa manage to educate anybody before 1983? Before 1983, the sales tax in Iowa was 3%, gambling was limited to Bingo Night, and most working people could afford a middle class home without having to pay skyrocketing property taxes in order to support every greaseball Democrat's relatives in Polk County and pay corporate welfare to rich companies like Google and Microsoft in exchange for some server babysitting jobs.

I want somebody to ask that question other than me.



Burn, baby, burn!