Sunday Notes in August

Just looking to log some notes on this beautiful Sunday Ohio morning.

First off we have news from the Columbus Dispatch. Tax issues are coming up to vote this week. The city of Columbus currently has a 2.0% city tax rate. It is difficult to say where this falls in the larger picture. Cities, Counties and States have different ways of looking at the same thing. From what I can tell though, there are many cities that don't have a tax and those that charge quite a bit. Regardless, some of the city leaders (see; The Mayor) are proposing a .5% increase. Seems harmless enough. People are making less, city has less money. A .5% increase is 25% tax increase. Quite the leap if you look at it that way. Others, would prefer to look at it this way... if you are paying $200 a year now, next year will be paying $50 dollars more. See how little! Hell, that only .14 cents a day! See! no big woop! Wait... you only pay $200 if you are making $10k a year? oh, well how much would someone or a household making between $50k and 70k pay more a year $250 more on top of the $1000 we already pay. Burns me up a little. And that's just to live in Columbus.

So why does the city need the extra cashola. Well, like i mentioned. People are making less so they have less. But let us look at what the city was making and spending in 2004 - $540 Million. Which was about the actual revenue of the city. What about last year? $640 million. That's correct. The city, in the course of 3 years increased it's spending by $100 million dollars. 20% increase in three years. To be fair however, revenues where going up almost at the same rate (of course the city always spending, just a little more per year). So what is the expected revenue for the city this year? $583k, back to about '06 levels. Still almost $80 million more then what it was in '03. Very good growth for the city this decade. But, with the city spending what they where getting every year they are now in a pickle... about $50 million over budget. Instead of cutting back un-necessary city functions, the city is threatening cutting back police and fire jobs. Please insert ridiculous commercials with broken windows and kids on the streets with guns. "My gosh, how ever did we make it waaaaaay back in 2006 with this amount of revenue!".

I went long on that one... So this one will be quick. A city just south of me called Grove City has cut after school athletics. A vote was put up earlier this year for higher tax and the proponents for it threatened cutting sports. It got voted down. They cut sports. This is happening in a few other cities around here as well. Has anyone else ever heard of this? It is strange. No HS football, basketball? It is strange. Anyway, the vote is up again this week. What is the culprit for that cities woes? A 66% increase in what is going out to teachers since 1995.


Ok, so off taxes for now. An update on, what is now called, "Wendy" my ride I got last week for (a song) my girlfriend (yes, named for Springsteen's song). She is doing well. Tie rods got fixed holding the driver side wheel in place. Door closes now and I got the previous owners junk out of it (including, what must have been a massive amp because the wires I pulled looked like they powered a small town). She's still got a acceleration problem, needs break pressure, but she will drive. Audrea and I tooled around a couple junk yards yesterday looking for nik-nak cosmetic stuff. We didn't find much except a completely ripped apart mid nineties Mustang which made her happy. Camaro folks dislike them with a passion. She 'booooo's' each passing Mustang.

Lastly, staying with my girlfriend. Last week she got me a great gift that I'll have around forever.

Plenty of space on there for more Super Bowl championships!