• The government lockdowns as an “opportunity (for) transformational change.”
• Turning failed government education policy into government jobs.
• A preview of what’s in store for bond debt-funding.

Back in 2008, with the country in the throes of a mortgage meltdown and onset of the Great Recession, incoming White House Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel pounced: “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”

So began an explosion of government spending and regulation.  A similar occasion has materialized over the last couple years, with some of the outlays raining down on municipalities.  The latest installment just so happens to coincide with a billion-dollar bond proposal.

City Council is currently trying to figure out how to spend $88 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).  It’s nominally earmarked to “determine what impact the coronavirus pandemic had on San Antonio in areas ranging from small business to mental health.” 

There’s no way to ever know that though, because the fallout wasn’t totally related to the virus.  What they will find out is the destruction that followed in the wake of government lockdowns. 

Businesses were ordered closed, some never reopened, and people (especially those with families to support) stressed out over the jobs they lost.  Where’s the mystery here? 

Ahh but wait: the city has received dozens of “unsolicited requests from groups and agencies seeking” 4-times what Uncle Sam has bestowed upon us.  Wiper blades are needed to clean the computer screen of the drooling over who will get what.

Councilwoman Melissa Cabello-Havrda (D6) strikes an opportunistic tone, claiming the pandemic gave us the chance “to improve our communities.” 

If the pandemic gave us a chance for anything, it was to find ways to navigate this new virus that was spreading amongst us.  And we were starting to do that: wiping counters and doorknobs, having more hand sanitizer available, using bandanas and handkerchiefs as masks, etc. 

Whether out of fear of the virus, fear of poor emergency planning, or fear of being seen as not “doing something,” authoritarians snuffed out the adjustments citizens were making. They brought the bureaucratic hammer down on us instead.  We all remember the hysteria, grocery shortages, and strife that ensued.

Given Uncle Sam’s loose spending standards, it’s not a stretch to say they, and their special-interest and academic cronies saw this “opportunity” coming.  That may be why they fell in line with state and federal officials rather than stand with their constituents.

One could be forgiven for thinking that this kind of gravy train is connected to the repercussions of politicians’ continually pumping more taxpayer funds into higher education: a greater number of college grads possessing degrees of diminished value. 

When kids who might otherwise have explored vocational careers, are instead lured to a university by artificially easy loan terms, you’ll see a shortage of labor in the former, and a surplus in the latter. 

It’s leading some to push for unionization, which tends to suppress economy dynamism, and therefore depress prosperity.  Or worse: to ‘careers’ in lobbying, the kind that depend on government spending for their livelihood. 

Never let it be said that government doesn’t create jobs. 

Concerns have been aired about making sure these ARPA funds are used for their intended purpose, and that we avoid commitments that would put pressure on future city budgets, etc.  That’s beside the point though. 

When you have folks like Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) who believe the arts are “an economic driver,” or that it’s possible for the public sector to spend “a bucket of money … efficiently and effectively” like the private sector, as Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8) does, there’s a disconnect.

Moreover, when Councilwoman Havrda (D6) feels the aforementioned opportunities “to improve” exist because they had “previously been underfunded,” doesn’t that imply that citizens have been undertaxed?  Given their reaction to recent property tax appraisals, they probably disagree. 

If voters don’t deny the council the $1.2 billion gusher of bond debt they’re so enthusiastic about, while at the same time demanding the property tax be eliminated, this cycle will continue regardless of the source of funny money.

Somewhere Rahm is smiling.

The post The Gravy Train Leading Devalued Degrees to Government ‘Work’ first appeared on Infuse SA.

• An increased debt-load is falling on a shrinking property taxpayer base
• Freeing up homeowners’ savings would genuinely boost area economic prosperity
• Politically-directed spending is inherently less efficient and effective than market-driven investing

Next month San Antonians will go to the polls to vote on $1.2 billion in bond proposals.  It’s a whopper of a debt-binge that includes funding for unfinished projects authorized by prior bond elections, some of questionable legality, and others representing wasteful jurisdictional overlap.

Also on the ballot will be two constitutional amendments, both aimed at reducing property taxes.  The issues are related.

Part of the tax we pay on the investment we put into our homes goes toward paying off that debt.  The city’s ability to continue tapping that source is subject to a couple of cross-currents.

One is soaring property appraisals by Bexar County.  This allows the city to pull in more revenue without raising rates.  Unfortunately, they opt to spend this windfall rather than cut those rates, or at least raise exemptions.

Texas has been picking up the slack on the latter.

In addition to the ones on the ballot in a few weeks, a couple more exemption-raising constitutional amendments were approved in November.  Any reduction in this damaging tax is progress, and it puts citizens on more equitable footing with businesses that get favorable tax treatment.

But only some taxpayers benefit.

To state the obvious, this is unfair, and it increases the burden on the remaining, shrinking tax base, some of whom may eventually say “to heck with this” and move outside city limits. 

Mayor Ron Nirenberg on the other hand, believes this exodus is happening due to a lack of “affordable housing,” and prospective homebuyers “losing … bidding wars … to outside investors.” 

The fact is, those investors are driven to these safer assets by poor monetary policy in Washington D.C. 

City council practically salivates at the opportunity to take advantage of this, and other federal largesse, to spend on their pet projects.  However, they can’t bring themselves to modestly raise exemptions on property taxes without the state compelling them to?       

During the last effort to raise exemptions a year ago, Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8) said the savings to homeowners of the proposed exemption hike to 5% would be “meaningless.”  We agree.  That’s why we believe eliminating the whole scheme would make it meaningful. 

The reaction of most politicians, regardless of jurisdiction or political party, is typically “but how will we fill the revenue hole in the budget?”  Whether that’s due to lack of respect for citizens, envy or ignorance is anyone’s guess. 

We tend to give them the benefit of the doubt that they just don’t know any better.

For one, taxpayers will not simply stuff the reclaimed $400+ million in tax seizures under the mattress.  They’ll inevitably go shopping, thereby pumping up sales tax revenue.  Or even better, some might use it to launch a business venture, hiring more sales tax-paying employees. 

Maybe in addition to appealing to residents to “buy local,” our elected representatives should also urge them to “invest local.”

They could also show more respect to enterprising individuals and businesses by eliminating city programs that are better- and/or already handled by these folks.  As it is, they appear to have more faith in their ability to spend taxpayer money than they do in that of the taxpayers’ themselves.

For example, rather than expanding control and increasing subsidization of “food access” programs, how about removing obstacles to its development, and selling plots of city-owned land to urban farmers? 

Members of council who have owned a business should know all of this.  If not, they’re more prone to cronyism.

If all this is a bridge too far for their ego, they could just add another percentage or two to the city’s sales tax rate.  If they agree with Councilman Pelaez’ aforementioned sentiment, one would assume they’d feel the same about consumers paying a few more dollars for say, another T.V.

If citizens are serious about stopping municipal versions of federal omnibus spending bills, it is critical to also demand the elimination of this coercive tax.  It would bump up the GDP portion of our state–high debt/GDP, which itself calls into question how much more we can take on with a handicapped ability to pay for it.

Shifting to the most efficient form of taxation would force the city to depend on the health of the economy for its spending, rather than on devalued dollars.  It would have more incentive to clear excessively burdensome hurdles to commercial activity.

Otherwise, they can count on us wasting valuable time protesting appraisals, putting on workshops to teach others how to do the same, numbing ourselves to it all by outsourcing the escrow process to our mortgage lenders, etc. 

How much more debt are YOU willing to take on, and how much more debt CAN the city take on?!   The bonds only raise those bigger questions about the tax burdens we already carry, and the burdensome solutions of increasingly higher taxes the city keeps falling back on.  Force the city to look for answers.   

Next month, citizens can put a stop to the city borrowing like a teenager who stole his parents’ credit card.  We should also put them in a timeout until they stop plundering our bank accounts.

The post A ‘No’ on the Bonds is Hollow Without a ‘No’ on Property Taxes first appeared on Infuse SA.