Jodi Rell, a true Republican


Jodi Rell is a true mediocrity but she, or the people pulling her strings, are masterful politicians in the classic Republican mold. Her proposal for "reforming" the property tax hits all the typical Republican notes:

1. Reject all proposals for meaningful and effective reform.

2. Propose something simple, appealing and designed to fail. Extra points if one can prove almost mathematically that it won't work. After all, it's an article of faith with Republicans that government doesn't work. That's not a hard proposition to prove when you're in charge of the government.

3. Make sure that when it fails someone else takes the blame.

Limiting annual increases in property taxes might be a worthwhile idea, if it went hand in hand with an assured, alternate source of income, but this plan does nothing of the sort. Instead, it assumes the good faith of future governors and legislatures, who we are to believe will fund the educational system, at the levels Rell is currently proposing, for ever and ever. We are already into "fool me twice" territory here folks. After all, Rell is only proposing a level of funding pretty much equal to what it was always supposed to be.

But that's okay with Rell, because when that future (or even present) governor and/or legislature welches on the towns, it won't be Rell that will have to cut basic services or deprive our kids of a decent education. It won't be Rell that has to take the heat from taxpayers who have grown used to being told by Republicans that they can have their low-tax cake and eat it too. It will be the town officials, who will have gotten a legally binding limitation in exchange for a politician's promise.

What a deal.

And don't be fooled by the talk in the Courant's article about the number of states that have property tax caps. How many of those states restrict their towns to that one form of taxation or do not otherwise guarantee some other source of income?
Posted: Thursday - March 29, 2007 at 08:00 PM          

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