Everything That is Wrong With Government

The headline writes itself as the County Commision goes forward with a plan to freeze the property taxes of senior citizens. It sounds like a good idea, until you learn the details and then you see the warped and twisted thinking that will go into this. it is everything that is wrong with a government trying to "fix" the problems that they themselves create catering to the very voters they are harming.

First of all, not all senior citizens will be helped. Only those who are over 70, earn less than $25K a year in your whole household, and have lived in Tennessee (in your own home) for 20 of the past thirty years. Imagine being the bureaucrat charged with sorting all that out. Having to research, track down, evaluate, verify. Then having to defend your decision with badly informed seniors who thought the new law was for "all" seniors, not just a narrow slice.

Then, there is the whole idea of removing the community's tax burden from some to be added to the burden of others. This is a classic liberal idea: both sharing and fair at the same time while being neither.

Of course, we also get into the idea of people who don't carry the community's tax burden still having a vote in distributing the money those taxes generate. It's like your teenager having a vote equal to mom and dad's in deciding her allowance. This is one of the fundamental flaws of a democratic system: once the people learn they have the power of the public treasury they will vote themselves all kinds of largess. And there will be plenty of politicians willing to cater to them in exchange for votes. Witness the Shelby County Commission and Memphis seniors. Don't forget that one of the most consistent blocs of voters is seniors.

The problem is with a County government that is legally required and publicly expected to do too much, run and led by people who have self-interest guiding their decisions. Add in developers who "build and run," that is toss up whole subdivisions and then leave all the problems of government service and public utilities to the County. The leadership of the County can't see the forest of where the County is headed for all the trees of special interests.

But that's not all! The County's attorney has already said any legislation giving property tax relief to a specific group of citizens is probably unconstitutional and would be struck down in court. Not to worry, the Commission says, they'll go forward anyway and sort it out later. No sense letting the Tennessee State and United States Constitutions stand in the way of a good, popular idea, right?

The idea is that if tax abatements are good enough for companies seeking to operate here, it's good enough for citizens living here. Well, some anyway. Not all businesses get tax abatements; you have to be big enough and have good enough lobbyists. Of course, since these businesses aren't paying their "fair share," only a few will benefit from this tax relief and their tax share (tens of millions of dollars!) is dropped on the rest of us. Think of it this way: you -- Mr and Ms Shelby County Homeowner -- are about to get yet another tax hike! But fear not. It's for the children seniors. Aww... we feel better now.

Naturally, there's a State legislator ready and willing to abet this foolishness, if it means a vote for him. Sadly, it's a Republican, the otherwise fairly rational Mark Norris. What he's doing is counter to his party's principles in profound ways, but if it "helps the seniors" and co-incidentally gets him some votes along the way from lifelong Collierville residents stuck with valuable property in a hot market they can't afford any more, then it's the "right thing to do."

The capper is this:

But commissioners decided to move ahead with developing the resolution to put the proposal on the table.

Commissioner George Flinn said tax relief was needed now, not later.

"I feel like the seniors on fixed incomes are being taxed out of their homes."

Hey, George. Pssst. Here's a tip for you: YOU CONTROL THE TAXES!! If you were serious and truly understood what you are doing, you'd know that.

It genuinely makes me sorry I ever supported Flinn. Really.

It's like watching firefighters faced with a massive wildfire. All they can do is let the fire burn itself out, and fight small actions along the edges trying to control some of the damage, if they're lucky. Except these firefighters are self-interested, motivated to save some homes and properties over others. They will accept money to turn their attentions one way while turning a blind eye to others more terrible and tragic.

And all the while they know who started the fire, who watched it begin to burn, and who could've done something about it before it exploded into a community killer.

It was them.