Spread The Load

It is so frustrating for me to listen to the Memphis residents attempt to have a  heart felt discussion concerning property taxes and the compensation of city and county employees. I think their intentions are well, but unknowingly many of them are voting against their own best interests. They are being mislead by officials with their own agendas. Any politician that promises to never raise taxes is probably a liar, or short sighted at best. The consciousness and civic involvement by the citizens is about six months too late. Councilman Shea Flinn offered this city the golden egg in my opinion. With his 1/2 cent sales tax increase proposal. All our social scholars and one trick ponies don't have a better solution. But they don't like Councilman Flinn's idea though. Yet anything they come up with now will be too little too late.

I always thought a better job of explaining the proposal to the  people should have been done anyway. A math class for voters would have done  wonders.  There is a huge difference between a .5 and 5% increase. I wouldn't vote for the latter myself. That would be a regressive tax. How can you be taxed  the same when one buys a hamburger and the other buys a steak?  Unfortunately the people that understood  were  outnumbered. County residents didn't hesitate to support a tax that benefited them. That's when I threw up my hands. I watched ten years of hopes and dreams go down the drain. We were on the brink of city/county consolidation. But you can't  want something for someone they don't want for themselves.  We had a chance to kill two birds with one stone. That chance may never cone again.

One thing you can expect when it comes to taxes. The politicians will never give them back. The mayor has nothing to do with property values. Mayor A.C. Wharton is doing a good job. He is working with what he has. Taxes are the lifeline of public safety. That includes firemen, police and sanitation workers. Then you have city hall Nobody wants a cut in pay. They even want a raise. The 4.63% raise they're expecting is a lot closer to 5 % than the proposed tax increase. The MPA is only thinking of themselves. Mike Williams is doing a good job as a union representative. But the majority of  the citizens don't work for the city. In a city with limited sources of  revenue. That would have spread the load out.