Never Enough Taxes

by Ron West

How much tax revenue is enough? How many governmental agencies can tax us? Is progress at any cost desirable? Is rapid growth to grow the tax base the ultimate objective of government? What percentage of our personal income should be controlled by government?

While the answer to the first question seems self evident – politicians think that there is never enough tax income regardless of the amount – the other questions are tougher to answer. While I do not know the total number of taxing entities that actually impact citizens of NRH, I do know that many new and creative ways of taxing are currently being discussed. Our Mayor, Oscar Trevino, serves on the North Central Texas Council of Governments Transportation Committee and while they are not a direct taxing entity, they have come up with specific recommendations to tax us with road tolls and a recommendation for a higher gasoline tax. When I see this, I cannot but help wonder about their math. We have more population with more cars on the road than ever before. Every new car adds to the gasoline tax revenue already being collected – i.e., ever increasing revenue to the state. Over the years, prior bonds for construction should be paid off but there is never a reflection of this in any “study” by a taxing entity. Yes – new construction is more costly today than in prior years – but tax revenues have been significantly outpacing inflation for many years now. It seems as if the “cost of the governmental bureaucracy” is taking a bigger and bigger cut out of the existing taxes so less is available for actual productive use. The answer is more tolls and more taxes – not a careful examination of current expenditures.

Is progress the ultimate goal of our city regardless of cost? Should it be the ultimate goal? When anyone decides to make NRH their home, is it because they can count on ever more traffic congestion, less open space and ever increasing taxes? Do they come to our city because of the SWAT team and Police Department that has every new gadget imaginable? Do they move here because we have the money to replace a perfectly serviceable fire station with a new one using tax dollars? Perhaps an even better question is do they locate here because of future planned spending by our City Council? Is progress defined as ever more taxes, congestion, new building and new businesses or is it better defined as improving the existing infrastructure? If we had a choice, would our money be better spent on maintaining our existing streets or building new ones for developers? Would we rather have adequate parking at our “neighborhood” parks or a slush fund to attract new business to our city? (This last question was answered by the City Council with the slush fund being more important.)

Is rapid growth to grow the tax base the ultimate objective of government? While it would not seem to be reasonable, the actions of our NRH City Council and City Management seem to place the growth issue at the top of the spending priorities. Developers are accommodated while citizens are ignored or stepped on in the name of progress. As a city approaches build out which is loudly being proclaimed by the Council, the revenue base will eventually – supposedly stabilize – which must make the City Council’s job boring. If they have to live within a slower growth curve than population or inflation, what are they to do? Is quality of life in our city and respect for our citizens who live here ever a consideration?

What percentage of our personal income should be controlled by government? While this never seems to be discussed when politicians want to increase taxes, it should be discussed. Ever new governmental agency with taxing authority, every new toll road and every increase in existing taxes and fees impacts the citizenry. Tax increases are supported by threats of closing the fire and police departments and shutting down the library. There is never any discussion of controlling the ever growing bureaucracy or slowing spending to the rate of income. An example of the tactics of ever increasing taxes can be observed in the current threats to cut exemptions in Arlington, the threats to layoff more police officers in Bedford than Bedford has and the threats of impending future doom in NRH due to the enacted Senior/Disabled tax freeze. The answer to the percentage question must be a really high number and under current public philosophy, we may all have to live on an ever smaller percentage of what we make.

Is there a way to change this tax and spend mentality of our local government? Yes there is and the answer is relatively simple but difficult to achieve. We as citizens have to become active in our local government. We must demand open records and then scrutinize spending. We must become active in local elections and meet our politicians before we put them in office. We must demand response to our questions from our elected officials. The best way to ensure ever increasing taxes is apathy on the part of the people being taxed. You don’t have to be a public speaker or writer to participate in local government. You do have to vote and you do have to investigate the claims spouted by your local officials. Ask yourself if the assertions of the local officials are reasonable and do they sound like the truth. If you want to do your part, pick up the telephone and call City Hall or one of your elected officials and tell them what is important to you. If you want more taxes, you have a right to let them know. If you want responsive reasonable government, you might want to tell them so. If you stay quiet, get ready to write checks for ever more taxes.