Taxes: The Joke is on Us

(Guest post from Mr. Backyard Conservative)

WE CHEAT THE OTHER GUY AND PASS TWICE THE SAVINGS ON TO YOU!

I used to have a T-shirt from a bar in Alaska that expressed that sentiment. I was reminded of that shirt when I paid my property taxes last week and read that this week our Village Board will consider two new taxes –a teardown tax ($12,000 a house--VOTE on this ordinance on Tuesday) and a gasoline tax (Finance Committee meeting Wednesday) These taxes are silly in their own right, but they illustrate a fundamental lack of seriousness in our village government.

The teardown tax is supposed to do two things: discourage teardowns and raise money for roads or affordable housing. These are contradictory goals. If you eliminate teardowns there will be no money for affordable housing. At the proposed level, this would not prevent teardowns but make the Village a partner in the teardown process. We would expect the village to become more tear down friendly (after all the money is going to a “good cause”). If, as the advocates claim it will be paid by those evil developers, we should expect that the replacement houses will become bigger so that the developers can recoup their increased costs. Collections of this tax are likely to be highly variable, so to maintain an ever- increasing level of spending other taxes will have to be increased.

The proposed gas tax is more properly labeled a stupidity tax. It is a tax on those of us dumb enough or loyal to local business owners to fill up in Wilmette.

The point of all of this is to avoid raising property taxes. Property taxes are the most visible of all the taxes of local government because we write a check twice a year to pay them. That is why the village will tell you that village property taxes make up only just under 11% of the total property tax bill or that you receive $3,631 in services for $1,091 in property taxes. Village government knows that if we get mad about property taxes we might just get concerned enough to elect trustees who will do something about village spending. So we will see more taxes that “other people” will pay such as people from out of town who shop in the village or those evil developers. We will see more stealth taxes like the recent increase in sales taxes or the proposed gas tax increase.

The bar owner was making a joke with his T-shirt. The joke is on us in Wilmette.