In politics there has been nothing that has surprised me more than the vote on May 26, 2009 by the Cecil County Commissioners to raise taxes by a 5 – 0 vote. I was absolutely sure that Commissioner Mullin would keep his word and vote against any tax increase. Commissioner Mullin is a real estate appraiser by trade and owns his own business. He knocked on thousands of doors where he personally handed out literature and made verbal promises of “no new taxes”. (just 6 months ago) I am shocked, disapointed and sorry that I told so many that he could be counted on to keep our taxes down. Jim is and will continue to be my friend but I cannot explain why he would vote in favor of what he has pledged to oppose.
I was hopeful that Commissioner Hodge, if gently reminded of his promises to “hold the line on taxes” would uphold his campaign election promises. After all, Commissioner Hodge had been the Chairman of the Cecil County Republican Central Committee and last year when Senator Pipkin and I held our taxpayer forum at the Elkton branch of the Cecil County Library, Commissioner Hodge signed up as one of the Charter Members of the Cecil Citizens Against Taxation (C-CAT). Hodge ran as a business man who knew how to make the hard decisions to have us live within our means. Yet, this was just six months ago, apparently a life time in politics.
I held out that there was a chance that Commissioner Demmler would join her fellow Republicans and make it a majority vote against any tax increase. I was in the audience when a citizen turned to ask those in attendance at the May budget hearing, How many persons are willing to pay higher taxes? Only the former School Superintendent, Mr. Carl Roberts raised his hand. Likewise, when the audience was asked how many of you would be willing to forgo some public services to keep your taxes lower or the same, every hand was raised, except for Mr. Carl Roberts’. Surely the Commissioner’s got the message, the public who voted you in would rather do without some services in order to be able to keep more of their own hard earned money.
I had a vague hope that Commissioner Lockhart may join in with Mullin and Hodge in voting against any tax increase, if Demmler did not, because I thought that Commissioner Lockhart wanted to run for a higher office in 2010.
I never held out any hope that Commissioner Thome would vote against a tax increase.
The property taxes had been raised for thirteen years straight on the citizens of Cecil County. If there was any hope for the citizens of Cecil County it was this year. Instead, we have seen a 14th straight year of increased property taxes on the citizens of Cecil County.
I was at the last hearing when we were told the vote on the increase on property taxes would be held at 7pm on Tue. May 26, 2009. Somehow that hearing was cancelled and a hearing was held at 2 pm.
How is it possible that in this time of “tea parties” and anti-tax movements is it possible that so many people who made public promises, “elect me and I will keep your taxes from being raised”, decide it was ok to just ignore those promises and betray the trust that the public had placed in them.
I don’t buy the argument that the public services we are provided are so necessary that they can not be trimmed. I do not believe that there is a growing need for services that can not be addressed by a more efficient distribution of the services available. I believe that our children deserve to be free from the bondage of government intrusiveness into our lives. The power to tax is the power to destroy and our government is doing its best to destroy Capitalism and the free markets. Sometimes we feel powerless to do anything at the federal level. We can though, effect what happens at a local level. We must work to show that we can live within our means. If we can not do that locally how can we complain when those we elect to represent us in Congress fail to keep their promises to keep our taxes down?
I have a call in to my tax attorney…I’m asking him if I can list JOE and the Commissioners as dependents.” At least the Democrats are consistent. It is the true leader who stand by their promises. You don’t buy into a budget prepared and defended by the very people have have much to gain by its being passed. If the entire Board dug in their heels and said, “give us a budget without any additional burden on the tax payers in this time of hardship,” adding “we will accept nothing more,” then they could keep promises AND truely work for those who put them in office.
Now is the time to look at what they have voted for. Will any contracts benefit any of those on the Board, or their supporters, who own large plots of property. Look for the waste and over-spending, like the cost overruns and mis-management of the Elkton High project. Watch for budget amendments where money flows between lines. Lets build an anti-incumbent movement that shows a disgust for those who DO NOT KEEP PROMISES, and can’t hold the line on expanding government.
Elkton sucks, cecil county sucks, i thought i made the right choice coming here from baltimore county to start a family. I guess i was wrong. If it aint the taxes, its the prostitutes in broad daylight, the pimps, the drug dealers and noones doing jack about it. Elkton is going straight into the burning pits of hell as far as I am concerned. My house is for sale now…here i come Elk Creek Virginia
I’m becoming an Independent and only voting for Independents. Tired of Republicans that won’t keep their word.
Could you possibly consider those Republicans and or Democrats who have promised to do something you favor and kept their promises while in office? Lets not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The independant you don’t know may be worse than the Republican you do know. Some of us not only keep our word we are working very hard to be sure others keep their word also.
If my taxes go higher for the greater good than so be it. I am just a small cog in the very big wheel
Unfortunately, we are all becoming just small bumps under the Wheels of Big Government as it rolls over us and burys us and our freedoms under the weight of its bureaucracy and taxation. Your Socialistic sentiments are not shared by those of us who wish to maintain some semblance of Capitalism and Democracy.
It is getting to the point where you don’t look at party, instead you look at where they stand on issues that are important to us all, AND do they keep their promises. I have no problem with Independents at the local level. The problem is State and higher. Whether we like it or not, and I don’t, we have a two party system, each with big bucks and a desire to get and hold power. We have a press that has forgotten their job…to inform us, not promote a position of candidate. In the last Federal election, Obama won because people bought into change, many of the voters believing he would govern from the center. They were wrong, and our kids will pay for this misjudgement well into the future.
At the present time, we are looking at the Federal, State, and Local governments expanding their powers over us…all of which flies in the face of LIBERTY. With expansion goes the greed…
Keep in mind that this County looks to expand infrastructure and government to meet the need of a projected population increase caused by the base re-locations into Aberdeen. The people who will make the money are the same who push for these increases, and donate to ther campaigns of these big spending politicians. The only two politicians I know who are not in with this group are Mike and Pipkin. Attacks on them in the Whig, and on some blogs, are motivated by the same group of greedy back benchers. They don’t want politicians who keep promises and work for the people. Hell, these two may give other politicans a bad name.
Yeah well here’s one that gets me. Some of these so called Repbublican conservative website publishers that are busy justifying the tax increase. They start writting about being so mad at first till they wrote enough to think it over. Then they understood why they had to raise our taxes. Of course when I read the earlier parts of that web, they were already busy explaining the tax increase. Guess that was before they got mad and then got over it. Those Dems understood they might have to raise taxes so they wouldn’t promise what our 3 comm promised. I’m not going to forget either bunch — the commissioners or my party leaders that are justifying it
There is a major debate going on within the Republican Party about whether republicans should criticize other Republicans, even if they are wrong. I dare say, some of the bloggers that Dodge talks about are those who will try to justify a tax increase. These persons ARE NOT conservative, and have not thought over anything. They seek to justify now to hold and office they no longer deserve. Real Conservatives, and and Republicans who believe themselves to be conservative, will NOT justify tax increases to grow government, and especially the acts of elected officials who promised to do one thing to get elected, and LIED.
This is a notice to ALL Republicans out there, keep to the basic values of the party, and most importantly, do not defend the undefendable. Regretfully the Democrat leadership and party, not necessarily the average “Joe Blow” citizen, have gone the opposite way. Its a shame that “whats in it for me” takes precedence over “whats right.” That goes for both parties.
People aren’t going to forget that they promised no new taxes and once they got in did just the opposite. I have more respect for their opponents who said they would do what they could to keep taxes down. I made a mistake by believing those no tax politicians, but it won’t happen again. I don’t want to see them coming to more of the Tea-Partys and things. They had their chance and they didn’t keep their word. Just stay away because you were in a position to do the right thing, and there were places that the budget could have been cut without hurting public services. They were just saying that to get votes. They won’t have my vote ever again and I think I speak for a lot of people that are coming out over these issues.
Riding past the County Courthouse today, I saw a major construction project being performed on the front garden. Is this an example of how the Commissioners are stewards of the public’s money? Is this the kind of fiscal responsibility that led to the increases in property taxes? This is a clear example of wasteful spending during hard economic times. Surely a “pretty garden” is not a necessary capital improvement project. How do things like this slip through the budget process? Because Department directors are allowed to submit budgets without detailed line items for expenditures. Someone needs to be fired. If the commissioners can’t reign in the spending of the Department directors, then be sure to remember this come election time!
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“It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn’t.” -Martin van Buren