A couple of years ago I was talking informally to a local politician, a conservative Republican, from a rural county in the Adirondacks.
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He was lamenting the fact that he was constantly being harassed by people wanting the government to pay for the care of their elderly parents.<\/p>\n
They were looking for ways to hide the parents’ assets, so that they wouldn’t have to spend their private wealth for essentials like medicine, housing and nursing home care.<\/p>\n
Instead, taxpayers would be forced to step in with Medicare and Medicaid payments.<\/p>\n
These are exactly the kind of costs that are kicking a huge hole in county budgets and driving up property taxes.<\/p>\n
(Health care is the single biggest chunk of every North Country county’s budget.)<\/p>\n
It was a private conversation, but it stayed with me as a kind of microcosm of our current dilemma.<\/p>\n
Americans want the government to do far more for them and their families. And we don’t want to pay taxes to fund those services.<\/p>\n
We want government to provide jobs, health care, safe roads, inspected meat, farm subsidies, plowed roads, great schools, and on and on.<\/p>\n
But we want someone else (foreign lenders? our children? fatcat millionaires in New York City?) to pick up the tab.<\/p>\n
In the past, this kind of freeloading — let’s call it what it is — was enabled by massive Wall Street bonuses, which translated into outsized tax revenues for New York state.<\/p>\n
Those revenues were passed along to local governments and school districts — and to property tax payers via the STAR program.<\/p>\n
And now, despite the massive fiscal crisis, the hunt for the free lunch continues in Albany.<\/p>\n
The legislature is working to create a “circuit breaker” provision for property taxes that would allow people under a certain income level to pay far less for local government and local services.<\/p>\n
On the face of it, it sounds fair and progressive: Only those with the ability to pay are forced to pay.<\/p>\n
The danger here isn’t that the property tax burden will be shifted to fewer and fewer wealthy New Yorkers. (Though I think we are approaching a breaking point there.)<\/p>\n
The real risk is that more people will grow complacent with the idea that their government services should be provided free-of-charge.<\/p>\n
What incentive do we have to keep costs down if someone else keeps picking up the tab?<\/p>\n
The solution to New York’s soaring property tax problem is really very simple: <\/p>\n
Local people have to force their own governments to cut costs. Yes, that includes limiting mandates from Albany and Washington.<\/p>\n
But the biggest challenge will be ending our small-town addiction to public sector (i.e. taxpayer supported) jobs.<\/p>\n
We’ll also have to wean ourselves from all the freebies. Heck, we may even have to use our own money to pay for our own parents’ care.<\/p>\n
What a radical idea. Families caring for their own.<\/p>\n
The bottom line? We’ve been living beyond our means. Far beyond our means. And the only honest way to get to lower taxes is to demand fewer services. <\/p>\n
(Sounds kind of weird doesn’t it? Demanding less.)<\/p>\n
So it’s time to get involved. Go to local government meetings. Show up during budget review sessions. Ask questions.<\/p>\n
And be sure to volunteer some things that you are willing to sacrifice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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