That's the title of a recent post over at Divemedic's place.
Sumter County Florida contains a large community called “The Villages.” The entire community is being built by a family owned company. They are planning to build 60,000 homes in the next 20 years. The cost for the infrastructure needed for this community is being left to the taxpayers of the county.
To cover these expenses, Sumter county passed a 25% increase in property taxes in 2019. The Villages managed this by getting several of their employees elected to the county commission. The developer claims that they are paying their share by building parks and golf courses- “amenities.” What they fail to say is that the amenities are only permitted to the people who live in the Villages and pay amenities fees. The fire stations, deputies, road maintenance, and other required public infrastructure is left to the tax payer.
If a developer builds a house in The Villages, or any other retirement community in Sumter County, the impact fee to help pay for roads is $972. If a developer builds the exact same house outside The Villages, the impact fee nearly triples to $2,666. That deal is thanks to the three commissioners that were on the board until the last election.
Voters were incensed, and replaced three of them in the 2020 election. The new commissioners passed a bill to roll back the tax, and make impact fees the same throughout the county.
That was defeated when the state of Florida passed a law limiting impact fees. The Representative who sponsored the impact fee limit? He is an employee of The Villages with a $350K a year salary. The number one contributor to his election campaign? His employer, the Holding Company of the Villages, Inc.
There's more at the link.
The trouble is, this is just a microcosm of the institutionalized corruption in Washington D.C. on the federal level, and in every state capital on the regional level. American democracy has far too often devolved into a swamp, where corporate and organized special interests dominate proceedings, and where they ensure that the legislation they want, in their interests, is passed irrespective of whether it's a good thing for everybody else.
How can we clean up Washington D.C. when we can't even rouse enough indignation to clean out the Augean stables of local and regional politics? Is that what those who stole last November's election are counting on, to let them get away with their crimes?
Perhaps the late, great H. L. Mencken was right in his pithy comments about government and democracy.
- Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.
- Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction in stolen goods.
- Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
- A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
- Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
- It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
I imagine many of us can agree with Mr. Mencken's sentiments.
Peter
Government is like fire: a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
ReplyDelete- George Washington
Many gibbets are presently empty.
ReplyDeleteDon't elect town, county, or State officials - select them by lot. If they refuse to serve, strike them from the voting rolls. Make office in each succeedingly larger polity dependent on success in a preceding office. Make the Recall an annual event, with every official in the jurisdiction appearing on the ballot. Only people who survive this course of honors should be eligible to run for election to Federal office, where of couse they would be subject to the annual Recall.
ReplyDeleteAs to the civil service, the East Empire had some interesting physical requirements.
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To what extent the influence of my actions, I am uncertain. But I do know that I played a part in the incumbent in my district deciding to not seek reelection.
ReplyDeleteAn R, with A+ rating from NRA, but no less a Rino. He had held the office as House Representative in the U.S. Congress for nigh on twenty years. He publicly stated he was seeking reelection. Due to vastly unfavorable results of my continued letter writing campaign with his office, I decided he must go.
See, for over twenty years I have regularly contacted various politicians who held offices in different levels of government. It is a source of frustration to expect results, or even reply, from insular politicians. Truly does a politician, especially the longer they hold an office, feel that they owe no allegiance to the public who they profess to serve. I do not let that sway my efforts. Eventually they must answer, even if it is a 'go to hell' as in the case of the whore who now pretends to be the VP.
Anyway, I solicited the random everyday citizen in my district. I gave a brief description with factual details of an unnamed ineffectual politician. I would ask, would you vote for such a politician? Then I would drop the name of the aforementioned Representative. The kicker was I made sure to keep that Representative abreast of my actions.
Shortly after I told him that I now have seventy voters, mostly registered as R, he announced that he had decided to not seek reelection. To spend more time with family, doncha know.
The strategy works. The politicians mount resistance to the constituency in order to make it frustrating or difficult. They count on the constituency to give up in frustration. But continuing to contact them will provoke them, as it should be. Remember, they eventually must respond. Every thing they say can and will be used against them. Do not let up. Do not be dissuaded for they are counting on that. It really has been an us against them and by their own hand!
Oh, his NRA A+ rating? Yeah, uh huh, I made a point of mentioning that in my every contact with his district and D.C. offices. Because he was firmly for increased gun control bills. This even though he said he was not. Actions speak louder than word, you swine.
ReplyDeleteMake them wear suits like NASCAR with their 'sponsors' on their clothes... sigh
ReplyDeleteBest part? "The Villages" is a Boomer retirement paradise, built by Boomers, exclusively for Boomers, and rampant sexual debauchery is one of the features.
ReplyDeleteThe Boomers will be robbing their descendents until the day the last one dies. Actually, they keep it up after death through the taxes and laws they've passed and the debts they accrue. A wicked generation, that will be hated for a thousand years after their deaths, if a civilization remains to preserve the evidence of their sins.
PS: if this offends any Boomers reading it...then you're part of the problem. I'm a millennial, and I don't get offended reading (largely Boomer-written) denunciations of my generation, because I know I'm not simply a millennial. I'm also an individual person, and I don't let the foolishness of many of my generational cohorts define me. If you, as a Boomer, can't do that, can't accept that your generation is despised but you aren't actually the physical embodiment of your despised generation, then yes, you're part of the problem, and the devil take you for your solipsistic wickedness.
Bibliotheca,
ReplyDeleteNo no, not Boomer but OK Boomer. I suggest we call it OK Boomerville, the ultimate destination for segregated living.