In Janesville, After We Broaden The Base - We Raise The Rates!

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Here's the expected annual story about the Janesville City Council approving the city budget.

According to the Gazette, City Manager Mark Freitag credits Dollar General and other projects for growth in the city's assessed value, yet the average tax bill from the city's portion of the property tax statement will rise $50 for the typical homeowner.

JG Excerpt:
A municipality can increase its tax levy only by the percent increase of net new construction. Dollar General and other projects have contributed to Janesville's 2018 net new construction increase of 2.73 percent, City Manager Mark Freitag has said.

Of course there are a few problems with that statement.

First is; although Dollar General does "pay" a property tax bill, very very little of it goes to the city's General Fund. Assessed values of any new construction inside TIF Districts are not added to the city's total taxable value until the TIF District expires.

To put it another way, since most of the city's "growth" is inside TIF Districts including Dollar General, they contribute absolutely nothing to taxable net new construction. That includes the giant Downtown TIF District whose assessed values are frozen in time for the next 26 years.

Property taxes collected from downtown property owners will continue to go up, but the portion going to the city in 2030 will be the same as it was in 2017. The rest of us chumps will have to make up the difference.

Secondly; "A municipality can increase its tax levy only by the percent increase of net new construction," is true, but it's not the whole truth. Municipalities can also increase its tax levy by the same percentage in rising property assessments. In other words, rising property assessment value equals net new construction in the eyes of the city tax adjuster.

Think of it this way: There's a reason why your home's property tax bill has gone up dramatically since 2010 and it's not because of new construction.

Sadly for both the City Manager and the Gazette, neither bothered to touch on or credit residential property assessments as the primary driver of taxable growth. While some of the city's biggest business players have lawyered up to have their property assessments cut in half, the rest of us chumps will have to suck it up watching our property tax assessments climb. We're the little people.

Freitag's boast about new construction growth in the city doubling in the past year is little more than a self-ingratiating account. Because if city new construction grew from 3.3 percent to 6.8 percent in a year results in raising the tax rate from $8.82 to $9.24 per $1,000 of assessed valuation is something glorious to behold, then we must believe broadening the base leads to raising the rates.

And THAT my friends is going backwards.

ADDITIONAL:

RNR - Use Janesville's $583K Earmark For Dark Store Relief

RNR - Janesville's Dark Store Community Grows

No Excuse NOT to Run For Public Office After The Election Of Donald Trump

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What could they say? You filed for bankruptcy? Dodged the military? Were accused of sexual assault? Transgender? Too old? Can't spell? Lack of education? No prior experience? Easily triggered? Those trying to discourage others from running for office by trying to make them feel bad for a lack of accomplishment or a non-traditional personal history have run out of ammo, thanks to the election of Donald Trump.

Watch it:

"When you brag about sexually assaulting women and then you get elected anyway, there's no barrier for entry anymore."

Danica Roem speaks out against Trump after becoming the first openly transgender woman elected to office. pic.twitter.com/bX2CRRLOti

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 24, 2017

Tunesday: Deep Forest - Sweet Lullaby

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Comparing Foxconn Favorably To GM Janesville Is Idiotic

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Yes. They went there.

According to the Janesville Gazette, Gov. Scott Walker made a campaign stop at a Janesville business and like Paul Ryan's visits to the area, Walker held a captive audience on private property and would not take questions from the press. So there's that.

But most notable from the story was a comment from one of his supporters favorably comparing Foxconn to Janesville's General Motors plant. The comparison isn't just apples to oranges, it's more like comparing apples to hammers.

Here's why.

First, the most obvious. Not only is the value of the dollar much less today, but the wages expected to be paid to the majority of workers at Foxconn in 2020 is less than half of what GM workers earned 20 years earlier. When you throw in retirement benefits, health insurance and job security, the comparison becomes absolutely laughable and sad at the same time. Clearly, we've moved backwards with Foxconn.

But more importantly are the things we don't readily see like the fact that labor unions, not government, provided a culture of worker training and community. Or that GM or its suppliers didn't require government to act as a middle-man to GM officials for communications, government assistance or subsidies. Clearly, we're moving backwards with Foxconn.

An unlike Foxconn, the hated corporate GM plant did not reside on government purchased land in a tax-free sales-tax exempt embassy-like environment. GM paid their hefty annual property tax bill to the county without demanding massive kickbacks, so much to the point where the city of Janesville was less dependent on state aid.

Today, Janesville officials claim they are being robbed by the state because the state aid formula remains as if the city still had GM paying into the general fund. Clearly, Janesville without GM is more dependent on government. Clearly, we're moving backwards without GM.

Unlike the Foxconn deal, GM paid their public utility bills to the city just like everybody else. GM used massive amounts of city water and public waste facilities and paid for what they used to the point that their payments substantially lowered residents bills. Back then, city officials and the Gazette tried to claim that their "conservative" policies and efficient governance deserved the credit for keeping costs lower than peer cities. But some of us knew better.

Unlike Foxconn, Janesville GM did not require the state government to extract $50M or $100M or $200M a year from taxpayers just to employ workers for the first 15 years. Yet, the UAW labor union was scorned for expecting far less in the form of dues from GM workers to help keep employees free from government dependence. They persevered for 90 years in Janesville and they're still hated today.

Yep, unlike General Motors Janesville, Foxconn brings with it a government-run Chinese mentality where "workforce housing" won't be privately owned homes lining the streets of Mount Pleasant in Racine county like the modest family homes on Janesville's southside, but factory on-site dormitories with channels to cheap global labor.

I'm barely scratching the surface here but I think you get the idea. Foxconn in Wisconsin is a product of inverted free markets and backward thinking. It's "transformational" for the state in the same way an apple pie can be reformed with a hammer.

"Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost!" -- President Ronald Reagan

Tunesday: Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today

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"Balanced Budget Amendment" Is a Fraud, But It Fires Up The Constitutional Arsonists

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For the most part, most state governments including the U.S. Government have balanced budgets.

The Federal Government doesn't do anything much different to balance its budget than Wisconsin does.

When there's not enough to pay expenses - government borrows money. Under Scott Walker, the state of Wisconsin borrowed money every year to meet balance. That's a fact. The federal government does the same thing. The national debt is an accounting of money owed that was used to balance the budget. Wisconsin has a similar running and growing state debt account. Pretty simple logic and math not much different than a household budget.

Sure, the Federal Government has the advantage of printing money. But it's important to note that the people supporting a balanced budget amendment are not calling for a moratorium on printing money or a prohibition on borrowing.

The terminology, "balanced budget amendment" is simply a cattle call much like Wisconsin's ballyhooed "Transportation Fund Amendment" state voters approved in 2014. That amendment was supposed to be the end-all solution to the state's chronically empty transportation fund by creating a dedicated transportation account funded with dedicated transportation sources. But since then, Walker and state republicans have borrowed heavily from creditors and the state's general fund to pay transportation bills.

Ironically, the same people in Wisconsin calling for a balanced budget amendment are the same people who called for the state transportation fund amendment and can't make balance without borrowing, are the same people who recently put state taxpayers on the hook for $200 million a year for the next 15 years without showing any means or guarantee to raise the revenue to pay for the new expense without putting other state obligations in jeopardy.

And on top of that, the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office filed a report showing Wisconsin won't break even with the $3B Foxconn deal until 2043. Yet these are the folks who think others should be forced to constitutionally "balance" annually. Whatever that means. Apparently.

So in my view, the "balanced budget amendment" is empty shell boilerplate coming from hyper-partisan operatives to fire up the base to open a convention at this critical time in history when single-party ruled fascism has gerrymandered itself into the country. That only means it is more dangerous.

Once the convention is opened, they can repeal the Bill of Rights and if the legislation in Wisconsin that cleared the state's justice system out of the way for a foreign international corporation is a barometer - they probably will.