RipRap

Friday, October 12, 2007

RipRap

Wal-Mart short-changes schools and other public services by challenging its property tax assessments.

Good Jobs First Excerpt:
Wal-Mart is involved in a large-scale effort to roll back the property tax valuation of its stores, cutting the amount it owes to local governments for schools and social services.

The largest tax reduction was in Tomah, Wisconsin, where local officials were forced to compromise and return more than $300,000 for each of three years totaling $949,000. The procedural costs local governments incur when defending their assessments can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for lawyers and outside appraisers. Unless of course your community gave the big-box retailer a TIF district, which shifts the property tax burden to neighborhoods and property owners outside the TIF district for up to 20 years in some cases. Thereby upholding Wal-Mart’s cost-cutting philosophy to “take back” what they give.

Obama: Wrapped in Ideas

Obama no longer wearing Flag Pin Excerpt:
"Instead," he said, "I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism." — Barack Obama

Showing patriotism through ideas assumes American voters think. Has he doomed his campaign because those who don’t think believe he is dissing the flag?

Did lies hinder case? Excerpt
Hiers said Janesville police wouldn't do anything differently.
"We would do it again in the same circumstances," Hiers said.

No, he wasn't talking about invading Iraq again despite knowing that there is no WMD.

Guiliani, Romney Champion Borrow and Spend:
"I cut taxes 23 times. I believe in tax cuts," said Giuliani, former mayor of New York and leader in national Republican polls.

.........Rudy Guiliani explaining his role in creating today’s fiscal hole.

"We have to get spending under control," No matter whether Republicans or Democrats are in control of Congress, he said, "the system is built to spend."

.........Sen. Sam Brownback ignoring the fact that the system is built on borrowed money.

Link:
"If things haven't changed by our next visit, we may have to announce a revolution."

.........Mikhail Gorbachev, implying that if the non-existent recovery in New Orleans happened in Minsk, Russia, the people over there would start tearing down walls and demand regime change.