A close friend posted this link on Facebook to our County Commissioner's blog concerning the recent vote to cut taxes:  http://www.joejaynes.com/blog/?p=437

The issue here is that the puny "cut" they're offering (something like 25% of a penny) relates to only about a $5 savings per year, per house.  Not much - yet collectively the county will lose $25 MILLION dollars for planned infrastructure improvements.

I don't want to sabotage the future of Anna to save $5.

I also want my tax cut to save me THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS A YEAR, EVERY YEAR.  I have been bled over and over and over again, year after year with the promise of a better future, but each passing year the burden falls upon ME to make it happen!  I SIMPLY CANNOT DO THIS ANYMORE.

If I had minimal taxes here and there, and got to - I dunno, choose by VOTING - on which improvements to agree to, the decision would be easy.  I don't want to sabotage the future of Anna to save $5.  BUT WHEN I AM TAXED BY EVERYONE WHO IS ALLOWED TO TAX ME AT THE MAXIMUM RATE AT WHICH I CAN BE LEGALLY TAXED I've simply had enough.  There is no more to give.  You've broken me.  So leave me alone, and STOP ASKING ME FOR MONEY.  I've had to cut back.  By God you can cut back too.

One day in the House of Representatives a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The Speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose:

Mr. Speaker--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never heard that the government was in arrears to him.

Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.

A close friend posted this link on Facebook to our County Commissioner's blog concerning the recent vote to cut taxes:  http://www.joejaynes.com/blog/?p=437

The issue here is that the puny "cut" they're offering (something like 25% of a penny) relates to only about a $5 savings per year, per house.  Not much - yet collectively the county will lose $25 MILLION dollars for planned infrastructure improvements.

I don't want to sabotage the future of Anna to save $5.

I also want my tax cut to save me THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS A YEAR, EVERY YEAR.  I have been bled over and over and over again, year after year with the promise of a better future, but each passing year the burden falls upon ME to make it happen!  I SIMPLY CANNOT DO THIS ANYMORE.

If I had minimal taxes here and there, and got to - I dunno, choose by VOTING - on which improvements to agree to, the decision would be easy.  I don't want to sabotage the future of Anna to save $5.  BUT WHEN I AM TAXED BY EVERYONE WHO IS ALLOWED TO TAX ME AT THE MAXIMUM RATE AT WHICH I CAN BE LEGALLY TAXED I've simply had enough.  There is no more to give.  You've broken me.  So leave me alone, and STOP ASKING ME FOR MONEY.  I've had to cut back.  By God you can cut back too.

http://collin.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=354
Clip 05:14 is the county tax rate vote.

Wait until everyone gets the water bill... it is an outrage!!!!!!!  check out the newspaper on the increase..

Ya, $4 trash increase + $4 water increase from the front page.  My wife chunked the paper before I could read the rest of the story.  Was there more?

You know, I could handle the rate increase for water/trash service, if we hadn't had to much increase over the past couple of years and weren't already so much higher that other places.  We moved here in fall '04, paid about $60 per month, family of four and since then we have watered twice a week.  Four years ago we stopped watering the lawn, and low and behold-the bill went up a bit.  Then rates for trash are raised due to the cans and recycling.  I am still okay at this point.  Hmmm, shocker.  They go up again.  At this present time, we are a family of 5, don't water the lawn at all, and pay $100 per month.  I am aware most of you pay more than that, but still!  My parents and some friends, living in Allen and McKinney pay a mere $60-$70 per month.  Not only do they get the recycling service, they get a bin for recycling to place in the house and one for pickup.  Really, Anna?  When does it stop? 

But, but, but, there is no where to cut the budget! We need that new sign at city hall! We need this and that! Thank GOD so of those people did not get their way or they would have raised taxes even more than they did!

It is funny how disconnected and detached ALL government bodies have become.

I just keep thinking back to the cities rebranding efforts and how that money could have been put to a better use.  My tax dollars are a terrible thing to waste!

My neighbors have come to a conclusion to give folks a job here in Anna who want to work, save tax dollars and not screw up things that are beyond repair.  The city leaders have the cart in front of the horse at times.  Why do we have so many police officers?  I will bet if they scale a few down, we may can balance the budget problem.