Your Home, Seen Through The Eyes of Others

Courtesy Tim Maguire, here's how it goes....

Your home, as you see it:

As seen by a buyer:

As seen by your lender:

As seen by your appraiser:

As seen by your Assessor:

Tim Maguire is a Libertarian candidate for City-County Council, at-large. Could any candidate but a Libertarian circulate this joke without a sense of deep shame or guilt? I think not.

Pluses & Minuses

I was fairly floored when I saw that Mayor Peterson's recommendation for the budget crisis was the cut all departments by 10%, with the exception of public safety. My gosh, where have we heard this before?! Hoosier Libertarians, myself included, have recommended this as a good policy direction for the entire five years I've been in Central Indiana. That's a plus.

But Peterson also recommended passing his proposed tax hike. Cutting budgets is so good and so necessary that I want to be all praise, but I just cannot. Tax hikes drive out wealth. It doesn't take a genius to understand this. Peterson, being in the land development business, should understand this better than the average politician. And yet, he stands by his tax. It's senseless, breaking things as he fixes them. If he were your child, you'd smack his ass and straighten him out. This is a minus.

The City-County Council passed the tax. Couldn't tell by reading the Indy Star this morning. How could this not be headline news? The CCC just did something to drive more wealth out of the County, giving me more new neighbors here in Hamilton County. Are they hell-bent on making Indianapolis a poverty magnet? It sure seems that way. Reminds me of Cleveland, how it went from a city of about 1 million to 400,000 in 20 years. How? A few small policy decision: a move from neighborhood schools to forced busing. An income tax increase. That's all it took. Major minus.

As usual, my decision to flee Marion County has been reaffirmed. I take very little pleasure in noting this.

Sunday's Property Tax Protest Creates "Petersonvilles"

I was not able to attend the 'Black Sunday' downtown property tax protest, but I was enthused to see the press coverage:

Indy Star: front page article.
Fox-59 TV: Lead story this morning, top of the hour. No direct linkage yet, but many clips about property tax issues currently.
RTV-6: AWESOME photo slideshow.
WISH TV-8: Article focused on affects on rental properties.

Most of these articles have video to accompany. Great imagery! The history buff in me was delighted to see the modern Hooverville, with the cardboard boxes and shopping carts as homes. Let's call them "Petersonvilles", shall we?

Today's event: Hoosiers for Fair Taxation, which held the first rally on the 4th of July at the governor's mansion, will demonstrate at 5:30 p.m. at the City-County Building in Downtown Indianapolis. Topic? No surprise: excessive local taxation and Mayor Peterson's proposed large county income tax increase at the public hearing at City Hall.

Add your shanty to the Petersonville!