Broken Promises
The Republican County Board campaign focused on the single issue of lowering taxes. They failed to give much attention to the fact that they yearly increase the property tax cap. I also find it hard to believe that not a single Republican candidate foresaw the tax increase now included in a public notice in the newspaper. Below is the scanned image.
The cynicism it requires to run an entire campaign based on lowering taxes, when one knows full well that the budget to be worked out less than a month after the election will require a tax increase, is almost beyond belief. I believe it shows very little respect for the voters.
The beginning of this legally required notice pictured above states that the hearing is about a tax increase. Yet, the end of the notice includes superfluous information about cuts to the building tax. The newspaper generally charges by the line or word. How much did it cost in taxpayer funds to include the completely unrelated extra language in this notice that is nothing more than a repetition of Republican campaign talking points?
This is a continuing problem for Republicans in County government. They have used their county board member government boxes to distribute fundraiser information and used county offices to film campaign commercials. At the October Board meeting, there was a large graph showing the supposed property tax cuts. They used a common trick to make a small decrease look larger by not starting the chart at "0." The same exact graph later appeared in the Republican County Board campaign mailing. Did the taxpayer foot the bill for that piece of propaganda that was made for a political mailing?
I think its important to spread this information because informing everyone is the best way to hold public officials accountable for their actions.