Property Tax: If you’re not part of the solution……..

And I’m the one who will not raise taxes. My opponent now says he’ll raise them as a last resort, or a third resort. But when a politician talks like that, you know that’s one resort he’ll be checking into. My opponent won’t rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes and I’ll say no. And they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again, and I’ll say, to them, ‘Read my lips: no new taxes.”

Those last six words became the sound bite from the 1998 Republican National Convention from Presidential hopeful George H. W. Bush when he accepted his nomination.  Those last six words also made George H. W. Bush a one term President.

20 years later Governor Corbett made a similar pledge to the people of the state of Pennsylvania.  He signed on to the Taxpayer Protection Pledge advanced by Grover Norquist’s Americans For Tax Reform which stated:

I, Tom Corbett,  pledge to the taxpayers of the State of Pennsylvania, that I will oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes.

The new transportation makes the third time since he’s taken office Corbet has violated this pledge to Pennsylvanian’s and each time he’s used political rhetoric to try and weasel his way out of it.  That’s according to Norquist but he’s ignoring something in the process.  Corbett’s rebuttal is that in each instance a fee is attached that is not a direct tax seen by Pennsylvanian’s when they purchase something.  That’s certainly true with the new gas tax but to pretend this tax won’t be picked up by the consumer, as all business or corporate taxes are, is simply delusional.

The new gas tax means that over the next 5 years we could see an increase of about 25 cents per gallon at the pumps.  The majority of the cost of this new tax will go to necessary infrastructure repairs, certainly a necessary function of government, but for the average Pennsylvanian, a 25 cent increase in a gallon of gas translate into an additional $200 a year in gas costs just to travel back and forth to work since the average travel time to work is about 30 minutes.

Since the passage of the Transportation bill my inbox has been flooded by “concerned” tax payer groups and this is understandable.  Many of those groups have also been silent about their support of another piece of legislation, some of them in violent opposition.

Here’s is what Norquist and all these other groups seem to miss.  Yes, over the next 5 years we could be paying another 25 cents per gallon to pay to repair roads and bridges that are collapsing.  Last year, the plethora of unfunded mandates pushed down on our local governing bodies by the state has resulted in increases in the property tax which, in turn, resulted in the net loss of homes to more than 10,000 people in the State.

Now before you read on,  I believe there is a solid moral principle in opposing property  taxation as a means to fund education.  I believe that the property tax, as it is now abused, is against every principle of Life, Liberty and Property that exists.   I’ve made those arguments in previous postings in this blog so if you want to read those moral arguments I suggest you go to read one of those articles.  This article is to point out the sheer hypocrisy of our opponents who are now in a huff over the gas tax but are just fine with the property tax.

This year the outstanding property tax related lien debt exceeded $1,000,000,000 by the third quarter in the state.  Over the next five years, the same amount of time it will take to see that 25 cent increase per gallon at the pumps, the projected impact on property taxes as a result of the do-nothing legislative body when it comes to pension reform, could see a minimum of 30% increase in property taxes just to cover the pensions.  Looking at the previous trends in property tax increases this means we could see a 50% increase in property taxes in the next 5 years  or a doubling of that rate in the next 10 years.

You see, something that Norquist and these other “conservative” PACS continually miss is that every time the property tax increases as a result of unfunded mandates at the state level, it’s a tax increase and that makes the batting average for the governor on his tax pledge abysmal. We have three property taxes (County, Municipal and School) and we have 67 counties.  Anytime one of them increases as a result of another unfunded mandate, even if the state doesn’t want to accept the burden, it’s still their fault.  We’re talking about the potential of 201 increases through the property tax annually.  If only one of those bodies increases that tax in each county it’s still 67 new tax increases each year.

Now I’m pretty sure that Governor Corbett might want to spin that some other way and he can do so when he talks to the press or the public.  This is my blog and that’s how I see it.  Governor’s Corbett’s batting average on no tax increases sucks!.  I’m not saying that his opponents in the next election will do any better but that still doesn’t excuse Corbett.  That’s like asking the child in the playground which bully he would rather have beat him up.  The one who hits him ten times or the one who hits him twenty. It’s a false choice because the average intelligent child would rather not be hit all.  That’s how we, the taxpayers feel, and  that, sad to say, is the problem with most elections…

Most State legislators apparently love to hide their taxes.  Take Seth Grove’s Optional Property Tax bill which would apply a mercantile or retail tax that, though hidden from the consumer, would be be paid by them through higher costs for the goods they purchase.  Besides creating a scenario where we could see as many as 501 different systems of taxation across the state as a result of this bill which would make the functions of maintaining a business in the state a nightmare and force many businesses to relocate into a school district where their taxes would not be so invasive, that then leaves the property owner to provide a greater portion of the property tax bill that is no longer being collected from the business.  That’s not a solution, it’s an ill-conceived misdirection to divert voters away from real property tax reform and the prime sponsor of the bill, Seth Grove, has stooped to amazing depths of deception and misdirection to sell this bad bill of goods to other legislators and to the people of this state.  Some of those “conservative” groups who oppose a real solution to property tax reform actually got behind Grove’s Bill and trumped it as the real property tax alternative and I have to ask myself, just what are they thinking.

Taxes should not be used for the purpose of social engineering and it’s about time this sordid truth about property taxes becomes a reality and the truth be told about the hideous beast that property taxes really are.

When property taxes were originally enacted we were an agrarian society where property and wealth production were directly connected.  That is no longer true.  Our homes do not produce wealth for us.

The first area where we see social engineering in property taxation is with the elderly.   For those who were able to provide a comfortable existence for themselves while they were working or were employed in places where substantive pensions or retirement plans were available through investments by the individual, property taxes may not really be a problem as long as both husband and wife survive.  That changes for many when one of them passes away.  Suddenly the property tax becomes a hindrance to them.  This is a couple who have worked and paid taxes their entire life and now they suddenly find themselves where keeping their home is no longer an option.  This has nothing to do with buying too much home since those seniors often already have their homes paid for.

That isn’t the majority of seniors.  The majority of seniors find themselves in a place where their only real sustainable income is though the social security.  For these people, maintaining the ever increasing property tax becomes impossible.  Next year’s COLA increase to Social Security will be 1.5%.  At the same time the Department of Education just increased the amount school districts can increase their school tax without voter referendum.  Here in the city of Lebanon, that increase can be as much as 3.4%.  Any senior currently struggling to pay their property taxes will no longer be struggling.  The cold hard fact is that they can’t pay and then they are either forced to sell their homes or they will eventually lose that home for an inability to pay their taxes.

There is another face of the property tax nightmare that is continually ignored.  Opponents of HB and SB 76 always like to roll out the cost on the poor by increasing the income and sales tax to provide for education funding.  I’d be more willing to listen to this argument if it wasn’t built upon a false premise.

Lets start by looking at what the property tax does to the cost of goods and services.  The farm or land the provides the raw materials pays a property tax.  The business that uses those raw materials to provide the good we purchase pays a property tax.  The warehouse that stores those goods is paying a property tax.  The store or business that sells those goods is paying a property tax.  In between each of these points are shipping companies also paying a property tax.   By the time you actually go to the store to purchase that item, you could see the impact of the cost of property tax realized 10 times over, each time making that item you are purchasing taxable or not.

Many are understandably offended at the notion of taxing food or clothing yet have no problem with tax the land that farms use to provide the goods necessary to provide those items; no problem with taxing the land of the companies that manufacture those items; no problem with taxing the land of the retail outlets that provide those items and no problem with taxing the land the shipping companies operate off of to provide transportation of those goods in between each step of this process. Isn’t that hypocritical?

This impacts the consumer base through higher costs for goods and services.  Naturally, the very people that use the impact on the poor to fight against  property tax elimination through HB and SB 76 have no problem with seeing those same people paying higher prices for goods and services through hidden taxes that drive up the cost.

Take something like corn.  We’ll tax the land that corn is grown on.  We then tax the shipping company that moves the corn from the farm to the business that sells it, either directly to the grocery store or to a manufacturer.  If it goes to a manufacturer, like a canning company, once again we tax the land of the shipping company and we tax the land of the manufacturer.  The manufacturer then sells that can of corn to distribution center.  More shipping.  The redistribution center then sells that can of corn to the retailer who is also paying a property tax.  At each step of this process that ear of corn got a little bit more expensive.  It may be barely negligible on that single can of corn but when multiplied by each and every item you purchase every time you go to the grocery store we need to ask ourselves exactly how much more are we paying for these necessary goods just because there is a property tax.

We’ve been told that we’ve been fighting for this for 30 years and we’ve gotten nowhere.  That’s not true.  The people have this state has received a return on their investment of supporting legislators and “groups” that fight against elimination.  It has artificially inflated the cost of goods and services while making the job climate in state less sustainable for family supporting jobs and nowhere does this hit harder than with those families who earn below the median income.

Not only are they paying more for goods and services because of the property tax.  The increasing property tax is driving up the cost of rent to those who may want to fulfill the American Dream of Homeownership but can’t make that leap because the property tax makes a home purchase an unavailable option to them.  While they may be able to afford the mortgage, once the Property Tax is factored in there is no way the family can provide the resources to purchase a home unless they do so in the cities where homes are more affordable.  Otherwise they remain trapped in rental servitude.

However, property tax impacts cities differently than it does the more rural areas.  You will find that in most cases the cities pay a higher milage rate than their surrounding rural areas.  While they may pay less int he total amount of the property tax, the percentage of their homes worth that goes to property taxes is higher, sometimes much higher.

IN an interactive map recently released by CNN Money (http://money.cnn.com/interactive/real-estate/property-tax/) we find that the average property tax in Lebanon County is $2,126.  It then states that Property Tax as a percentage of home value is 1.32%.  However an $80,000 home in the city of Lebanon is actually paying about $2,500 in property taxes or about 3.2% of home value.  How can that be?

If the average is 1.32% and city residents are paying 3.2% then there has to be others who are paying less than 1.32%.  Cities become attractive alternative for families earning below the median income because housing is more affordable but the property taxes on that home can  be double the home worth that the less affordable more rural homes.  IN other words a $160,000 home in the rural areas, something the lower income family may not be able to afford, paying 1.32% of the home worth in taxation will pay the same amount of property tax as a city resident living in an $80,000 and somehow opponents of HB/SB 76 think this is fair.

This is redistribution of wealth at the most heinous level.  Were are placing a higher burden of taxation on those least able to pay for it while making property taxation more comfortable for those more able to pay for it.  Those still comfortable in their property taxes then become harder to sell on the concept of elimination which would be of greater benefit to those least able the pay their property taxes.  In short, when the people talk about the impact of a higher PIT and Sales tax on the poor they do so while ignoring that property tax is far damaging to the very same people they seem to care so much about.

Now it only stands to reason that if an family making less than the median wage is paying a higher percentage in property taxes compared to home worth, then they are also paying a higher percentage of their income to the property tax.  This gives those below median income families less discretionary spending to pay for the times that are made more expensive by the repeated application of property taxes.

Now understand this – Median income is the amount which divides the income distribution into two equal groups, half having income above that amount, and half having income below that amount.  When it comes to property tax that lower half is paying a higher, often much higher, percentage of both their home worth and their income to the property tax.

We can no longer afford to ignore the problem of property taxation.  Those who lie to you by saying the higher taxes are a symptom not the problem are either doing so intentionally or they really don’t understand the many ways that property tax destroys our economy.

Ask yourself why the state doesn’t generate enough money through PIT and Sales Tax to provide for the necessary repairs of roads and bridges.  Is it possible that it’s because of a property tax that leaves less discretionary spending in the hands of all tax payers but even more so in the bottom 50%?

Ask yourself why, if both the IFO and the Anderson studies conducted by the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors  say that this shift is not only beneficial to those in the lower income brackets and seniors, do opponents continue to claim the exact opposite?

Ask yourself why, if both the IFO and the Anderson studies conducted by the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors  say that this shift will make Pennsylvania a more business friendly environment which would create more family sustaining jobs and therefore increase the revenue of the state in both the PIT and income from the Sales Tax, do taxpayer groups still stand in opposition and legislators still fight against us.

The dirty and very ugly truth about property tax needs to be told and it’s been told in various form repeatedly but when have a media that generally doesn’t want to tell this story.  We have legislators who blame the housing collapse solely on those who bought too much homes when the majority of the vacant homes in the state are more that 60 years old and exist in our cities.

I have no doubt that this will be an election issue next year and it remains to be seen who will stand with the people and who will fight against them to protect this onerous and discriminatory form of taxation that places the highest burdens on those least able to pay.

There’s an old expression that says if you aren’t part of the solution you are part of the problem.  The opponents to HB/SB 76 have offered no real solutions, certainly not Representative Grove no matter what depths he’ll stoop to to lie to you about his bills.  Certainly those PACs that oppose us aren’t offering any solutions.  That means they are part of the problem and if you are living in the half where property taxes are destroying your budget it also means they don’t give a rat’s a$$ about you.

I get the anger at increased gas prices.  I also get that we need to fix those roads and bridges and that this is a necessary part of a responsible government but if the gas tax makes you mad, the property tax should have you ready to storm the Capitol.

Here’s my challenge to our opponents.  Give me a better solution.  Tell me what your proposal is and if you don’t have one then it’s time for you to sit down, shut up and get out of the way.  If you don’t have another solution then you are supporting the property tax and you have no problem with oppression so long as you aren’t the one being oppressed.

Any citizen of this state who can look at the face of an evicted home owner and say that 10,000 people losing their homes in this state isn’t a problem doesn’t care about anyone but them self and their own special self-preserving interests. Do you really think it’s okay to take a larger slice of the pie from those least able to afford it even to the point of taking their homes from them and then have the audacity to blame the people who are losing their homes?

Like many of you I agree that Pensions, Prevailing Wage reforms, Paycheck Protection and limited Government are all reforms this state desperately needs.  If you actually took the time to study the issue you’d see that one of the great enablers of these beasts is the property tax itself when the costs of each of this things is forced down to the local level through the Property Tax.

If you want to see those reforms the only way its going to happen is to force those issues back to state where we force the state to pay for those unfunded mandates or fix the problem.  Until them Property tax isn’t a symptom, it the enabling disease that makes all the other symptoms possible.

One final point, for those complaining about the gas tax but not supporting HB/SB 76.  If you had gotten behind us last year and pushed for this needed reform by now you would have seen the start of job growth and economic recovery in the state as a result of infusing the state economy with 10 billion dollars of revenue currently stolen from property owners in this state.  The majority of that would have gone into education funding but all the new growth that came as a result would have generated new revenue to the general fund and PIT tax that just might have made enough of a difference so as to make this transportation bill absolutely unnecessary.

It’s not that difficult to see how this would impact the housing industry alone which could have resulted in thousands of new jobs across the state just in new construction alone with more houses become more affordable.

Independent studies have told us what HB/SB 76 would do to the housing industry in the state of Pennsylvania in creating new jobs in construction for new homes as well as construction work for home renovations and expansion. How does this impact the state? Well, if only generate 10,000 new private sector jobs that are paying an average of $10.00 an hour (and I believe that number of jobs to be a very conservative estimate) we would see a $208,000,000 total revenue increase in the state. That results in generating $8,881,600 in taxes to the state through the PIT alone. If only 1/10 of that $208,000,000 is spent on taxable items it generates another $1,456,000 in sales tax revenue for a total of $10,337,600 of new revenue to the state. This, in my opinion, is only a glimpse as what every one of our opponents has made themselves of an obstacle to achieving in the state! That, Governor Corbett, is a real “Passport to the Future!”

FOUNDATIONS: The Consent Of The Governed Part 3

This is part 3 of a series of articles on principles of government as laid out in our founding.

This then brings us to the separation of powers in providing a system of checks and balances.  We were given three branches to our governing bodies.  We have the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, before there was a Federal Government, had already made use of three branches to separate to provide for checks and balances in government.

Simply stated, the legislative body is to make the laws, the executive branch is to approve the laws and the judicial are intended to prosecute the laws as well as to determine if the law is Constitutional.  When these bodies function within the understanding of consent of the people and the true nature and purpose of government then that government should only create laws involved in the protections of the rights of the people, The Executive should only approve laws that meet that end and the courts only prosecute laws that also meet that end.  When these bodies begin to function outside of this realm it begins to become destructive to the freedoms and liberties of the people.  When a governing body stops holding, as its primary function, the protection of the people in the life, liberty and property, Tyranny will always commence.

There is, though often dismissed, a fourth check and balance to government and that lies in the consent of the governed…We the People.  As stated, this branch of government is the most overlooked.  Just government is a creation of the people.  It is intended to serve the people in the protection of their natural rights.

It is human nature to be self-serving.  In the protection of our own property, the owner of such property is serving their own interests but the individual has no real power over their neighbors when just laws are in place to prevent such actions.

John Locke explained it like this “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions…And that all men may be restrained from invading others rights, and from doing hurt to one another, and the law of nature be observed, which willeth the peace and preservation of all mankind, the execution of the law of nature is, in that state, put into every man’s hands, whereby every one has a right to punish the transgressors of that law to such a degree, as may hinder its violation”

If an individual has a natural right to protect their property, they also have the authority to delegate to a governing body to ability to make laws to protect that property.  But a great deal of power in the hands of a few can easily be corrupted because of the natural self-preservation nature of the human spirit.  If we can understand and accept that there must be laws to prevent us from doing harm to our fellow human beings, why would it escape our understanding that a governing body must be restrained from doing the same.

This becomes the purpose of a Constitution.  It defines the limited powers of the governing bodies.  The Constitution is intended to be a moral rule that is designed to be a document of negative rights to the governing bodies.  However, even the best Constitutions can be abused and when this happens it then falls on the people to rise up and demand that the government correct this moral wrong.  This is not only their duty, it is their moral right.

Let’s look at John Locke once again:

“And thus the community perpetually retains a supreme power of saving themselves from the attempts and designs of anybody, even of their legislators, whenever they shall be so foolish, or so wicked, as to lay and carry on designs against the liberties and properties of the subject”. (Second Treatise, Chapter 13).

“But if a long train of abuses, prevarications and artifices, all tending the same way, make the design visible to the people, and they cannot but feel, what they lie under, and whither they are going, ’tis not to be wondered, that they should then rouse themselves, and endeavour to put the rule into such hands, which may secure to them the ends for which government was at first enacted”. (Second Treatise, Chapter 19).

Now let’s go back to the Declaration of Independence:

whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Now let’s look at the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania:

All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness. For the advancement of these ends they have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think proper.

Perhaps we should begin to ask when we, as a people, began to ignore this most essential point in the preservation of our Sovereign and Individual rights in the preservation of our Life, Liberty and Property.  Our founding documents warned us of the encroachments that would take place on our rights if the people did not assure that such a thing would happen.  So did our founders:

John Adams

Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.

Samuel Adams

All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another.  If ever the Time should come, when vain & aspiring Men shall possess the highest Seats in Government, our Country will stand in Need of its experienced Patriots to prevent its Ruin

Alexander Hamilton

If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.

 

Thomas Jefferson

The most effectual means of preventing [the perversion of power into tyranny are] to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts which history exhibits, that possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes.  I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of Constitutional power.

James Madison

If it be asked what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer, the genius of the whole system, the nature of just and constitutional laws, and above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it.

Thomas Paine

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

FOUNDATIONS: The Consent Of The Governed Part 2

(This is part 2 of a series of articles intended to explain the foundational principles of just government as intended by our founders.)

In order for a government to function through the consent of the governed, a series of thorough checks and balances must be in place to prevent the governing body to exceed in power.  The powers of the governing bodies must be free to provide for the security of those being governed and this should be their primary function.  Before we can discern the checks and balances, we need to know what good Government is designed to do.

John Locke said that “The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property.”  He would explain this in greater detail by saying “”To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.”

Blackstone, another political philosopher that our founders were familiar, with stated “So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorise the least violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community. If a new road, for instance, were to be made through the grounds of a private person, it might perhaps be extensively beneficial to the public; but the law permits no man, or set of men, to do this without consent of the owner of the land. In vain may it be urged, that the good of the individual ought to yield to that of the community; for it would be dangerous to allow any private man, or even any public tribunal, to be the judge of this common good, and to decide whether it be expedient or no. Besides, the public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual’s private rights, as modelled by the municipal law.”

The security of the individual is then Governments prime function and that security lies in the protection of those three natural rights, the trinity of Life, Liberty and Happiness.   Happiness is framed around individual property.  In 1750 the colonists were impacted by a decision by Parliament to grant Writs of Assistance against the property of the Colonists.  These writs allowed for indefinite search and seizure of the property of the Colonists.  It was one of the fanning flames that led the colonists to declare their Independence.   The most vocal to stand  in opposition to the Writs was a lawyer in Boston by the name of James Otis.  He understood that this was a breech of trust between the partnership of those who governed and those being governed and stated “Now, one of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one’s house. A man’s house is his castle; and whilst he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ, if it should be declared legal, would totally annihilate this privilege. Custom-house officers may enter our houses when they please; we are commanded to permit their entry. Their menial servants may enter, may break locks, bars, and everything in their way; and whether they break through malice or revenge, no man, no court can inquire. Bare suspicion without oath is sufficient.”

Property was understood within the context of anything belonging to an individual that they acquired through their own industry and intellect.  It was most exemplified through the attaining of real estate but not limited to that physical property.  Otis begins his argument by declaring that liberty is hinged to the protection of the right to the things which belong to that individual.

Moral law begins with the protection of the individual’s natural right to the things which belong to them.  Moral law has nothing to do with granting or guaranteeing the individual material things but everything to do with protecting those things which the individual acquired through their own industry.  We can see this exemplified in the simply statement “Pursuit of Happiness”.

Man, in his nature, will use his resources to obtain property by pursuing the things that brings him material happiness.  This is their “Pursuit of Happiness”.  A just government will allow this to go unhindered provided the individual is not using an immoral means to pursue their Happiness which would include the theft of another individual’s property.   Wealth and Property was not to be obtained through theft or deception.  As long as the individual obtains those things which make that individual happy through their own honesty and industry than those possessions, that property, was a moral right.  When the individual exceeds that realm by exerting a force over another that denies them their property by theft or deception, the actions then become an immoral wrong.

Otis continued this argument by declaring that a man’s home (however humble) is paramount to his castle and while he is left alone in it (whilst he is quiet) he will live as a prince in his castle.  This is the understanding that a home is not merely a place where one lives.  It is the place where the property of the individual resides.  A visit to an individual’s home can tell us much about the owner of that property. Going inside a person’s home is a glimpse into that person’s soul.  The pictures on the wall, the books in their library, even their choices of décor in the home.  These things reveal a glimpse into the individual soul.  Perhaps this is why John Adams declared “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If `Thou shalt not covet’ and `Thou shalt not steal’ were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.”

Adam’s argument then establishes that one of the functions of government is to protect the things which belong to those they govern, not as a collective, but as individuals.  Laws were required to protect the individual from acts of anarchy and tyranny.  Anarchy would be theft by other individuals in society with no respect for the moral law.  Tyranny would be a theft of property through force by demanding from the individual the things which rightly belong to them.

It is not the government’s responsibility to make us happy by giving us things.  In order to give something to someone who has not obtaining through their own industry requires taken from another through theft by an act of anarchy (in violation of laws) or tyranny (using self-determined laws to force such theft).  Both become an immoral wrong.

While it is not the governments duty to give us things, it is the government’s responsibility to guard those things which we, as individuals, have obtained in the pursuit of our individual happiness-guard us from these acts of anarchy and tyranny from others.  Only through this means can we realize the balance of this trinity of individual rights realized through Life, Liberty and Property.

Anarchy is a rejection of the moral rights of others.  Anarchy declares there are no laws to restrict the individual freedom to do as they will even if that means denying those same freedoms to another individual.  Anarchy may exalt the Sovereign right of the individual but it does so at the expense of equal Sovereign right of others.  This then corrupts the natural right into something unnatural and creates a society built upon an immoral wrong.  Anarchy creates chaos where the powerful abuse the weak.

Tyranny is just organized Anarchy where the lead Anarchists develop the rules by which society will live without the consent of the people.  It makes no difference where or how this exists, from the local civic organization to organized crime or to the local bodies of government.  Tyranny exists wherever the people live in subjugation to those who govern them.

No clear thinking individual would willing submit to instantaneously becoming a slave to a system of government.  The most powerful Tyrannies do not come into power and maintain that power suddenly but rather come in to power through a slow and steady encroachment against the Sovereign rights of the individual citizens. This sentiment can also be found in our Declaration of Independence: “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

The individual who understands that their governing bodies are exerting a form of tyranny over them will often make the statement “I’m only one person, what can I do!”  That is exactly what tyrants want you to believe.  That is how they obtained their power….first they begin exerting a power over the people through deception claiming it is for the general good of the collective by making Individuals feel that they should sacrifice their personal Liberty and Sovereign state for the sake of everyone else.  Then, once you realize what you have sacrificed, the tyrant must make you feel powerless in standing up to reclaim those natural rights.  When the majority of society believes this to be true, Tyranny has a firm hold on society but it is a hold that cannot endure very long.

History has shown time and again that people will endure such actions for only so long before they will be so overwhelmed by their natural instinct to preserve that which is theirs to rise up in resistance to those who have enslaved them.

Again, this natural resistance arises because of a natural right within the Individual.  This is why we read those words in our Declaration of Independence that state “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” or “All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness. For the advancement of these ends they have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think proper.” as we read in our Commonwealth Constitution.

The consent of the governed is required to make any governing body a just body.  This is the only way that natural rights can surface and that society can flourish and prosper.  It is the only way to ensure the protections of equal rights.   Without such consent the natural rights of the Individual are denied and this then makes the government an unnatural government and this is a corruption of government to make it an immoral government.  Government then should never be the arbitrator as to what is moral or immoral since government is a creation of the people.  Moral rights are to be determined by simple principles based upon the Natural Rights of the Sovereign citizen framed around the protection of the sacred manifest and natural trinity of Life, Liberty and Property.

FOUNDATIONS: The Consent Of The Governed

(This is the first in a series of articles that will look at our duties as citizens in the process of restoration necessary to place this country back on track to the founding principles of our Country. )

Our country was formed to give us a representative form of government.  In order for this system of government to exist there are two things that are required.  First a leadership that is willing to submit to the voice of their constituents and second, a body in the constituency that is determined to have their voices heard.   If either part of this equation is missing then we lose that representative form of government until both are corrected, either by forms of tyranny through usurpation of powers or by a willing surrender of the part of those being governed to become servants to those they elected to serve them.

We can find its truth in these words in our Declaration of Independence:  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

This statement is both a warning to government and to the people.  When usurpation of powers leads an elected representative of the people to ignore the consent of those they govern there is no longer a just government.  When the people, through their silence, choose not to give their consent through the voice but choose instead to remain silent and allow the government to do as it will, we are the ones responsible for the creation of path to that usurpation of powers.

Our Commonwealth Constitution went to great lengths to promote the security of the involvement of the people in all decision making processes in Government.  The Commonwealth Constitution built itself on another principle from the Declaration of Independence: whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The ink was barely dry on the Declaration of Independence when Pennsylvania framed its new Constitution on this similar principle.  Beginning with a Declaration of Rights as the first Article our Commonwealth Constitution it says in Section 2 of this Article:  All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness. For the advancement of these ends they have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think proper.

No individual has the right to claim being a representative of any group without the consent of those within the group.  They have no right to make use of that groups name or that groups position without being a duly elected representative of the people in that organization.  To violate these principles is to commit an act or acts of tyranny.   It removes the consent of the people and places power in the hands of individual that, even if the people so desire, the people have no natural ability to delegate.

Leadership in a true representative form of government is a partnership between the representative and the people they represent.   The power of an elected representative requires two distinct things: (1) the consent or will of the people and  (2) the power exerted must be within the constituent’s authority to delegate to that representative.  The constituent cannot consent to granting powers to an elected representative any powers that if they themselves individually committed would result in a criminal action.  We can only delegate to our elected governing bodies an authority that is within our power to grant.

This is the natural moral law of just government.  It is also a natural and moral law of society at any level.   If this is a natural and moral law and it is violated the action becomes unnatural and immoral.  It is a corruption of that which is just to become unjust because such actions always result in the benefit to some at the expense of others.  It requires an unwilling submission of slavery to another that does not require consent but rather subjugation.

If we are to see a restoration of the principles of the founding of this nation it must begin by the restoration of the relationship between those elected to represent us and the citizens they represent which requires the active participation of both to be successful.

This restoration must begin at the bottom.  It must begin with the process of elections.  that starts with those we elect to represent us in our respective parties as members of a committee to that party.   For the past 4 years we’ve heard the same story that we elect members to these committee members for the purpose of the endorsement of candidates.  That’s not the message from the people; that is a message from the leadership of those committees.  To secure this authority, the committees have established rules to prevent members of the committee from violating support once the endorsement process takes place.  Regardless of their moral objections to a candidate or the will of the people who have elected them, once the vote is taken blind obedience is required by such law that may force the elected representative to no longer represent the will of the people who elected them.  This often requires members of the committee to compromise their principles while also violating their rights of freedom of speech in order to abide by the rules.  Here at this lowest level of government we find the first forms of corruption that begins the path of much greater form of corruption where parties control elections not the people.  This then turns the people into servants of their party rather than a party that serves the will of its people.  That is a government that is upside down and when it begins at this most primal level it begins to lay a foundation that violates the principles of just government and this then is where corruption begins.

The people have made their voices heard and that voice is continually ignored.  We have continually asked for non-endorsed elections to allow the candidates to get out and work for the support of the citizen.   The endorsement process works against this accountability to the people.  The only support a candidate needs is from within a majority of the committee and it therefore makes a candidate accountability to the committee greater than their commitment of accountability to the people.  Once the endorsement takes place the voice of any opposition within the elected representatives of the party is silenced regardless of the will of their constituents and once again we see that this is where the process of usurpation of power begins.

If we are going to see a restoration of the principles of representative government it requires that we make our voices heard to those who represent us at this, the lowest level of government.   Running for a committee seat is just one way of changing a committee but this should be done with a full explanation of the rules with which the individual is expected to comply.   It is not enough to simply get people to run for these offices.  If we are to sustain that change than we also need citizens willing to hold those we elect responsible.   If a representative at the committee level refuses to listen to us, then we must work to replace that representative with someone who will listen to the voice of the people, not simply the voice of the committee.  They weren’t elected to represent the committee; they were elected to represent the people.  If the rules force them to violate true representation of those who elected them, then those rules must be changed.  That will require enough people willing to make those necessary changes.  Those changes will never happen as long as we have people willing to protect rules over the people they represent.

This same principle applies to our local governing bodies.  Public meetings are held for the public to attend.  Whether this be school board or any other council of government, the role of the citizen is to be aware of what is happening in their community.   A strong local government accountable to the consent of the government is a line of defense against usurpation of powers that are harder to stop.  Once again, you did not elect your local governing bodies to comply with the wills of the state that are in violation of your consent.  These people are accountable to you first.

Governments did not create people.  People created government.  Anything created is not greater than the one who created it.  The creation is, at all times, accountable to the creator.   A creation is designed by its creator to a purpose as long as the creation meets that purpose it remains in its natural order and there is a peaceful coexistence between creator and creation.  Any organization or party will naturally create a governing body and the purpose of that governing body is to protect the individuals of that organization or party who have come together for like purposes.  When that governing body establishes rules to protect the governing body at the expense of those  they are governing we see the beginning of a usurpation of powers that leads to corruption which creates pathways for tyranny to those governing and servitude for those in within the body.  This then ceases to be government in its natural form to become an unnatural or dictatorial form of government that leads to serfdom for those in that body.  In turns something moral into something immoral.

True leadership is the spirit of servanthood.  It is a willingness to take a position of authority that is tied to a servant spirit to those who have called them to lead.  It is not a desire to hold all authority over the people who elected you but rather to allow them to execute an authority over you in the duties and responsibilities of the office you hold.  This is the ultimate framework of government that functions through the consent of the governed.

We will expand on this principle in our next article as we take a deeper look at the role of local government.

 

 

Just Government, Deceptions and the Theft of Property!

Before you read on I want this point to be very clear.  Our system of government is about the best that has ever been crafted by mortal minds.  There is nothing wrong with our state or our country that a strict adherence to the moral principles of Constitutional rule of law wouldn’t cure.  The problem isn’t with the Constitutional rule of Law, it’s that so many of our elected representatives and the departments, agencies and commissions they’ve erected stand in violation of that rule of law. A Government by the people, for the people and of the people is a government that understands the Sovereignty of the Individual.  A government that understands that just governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed also understands the Sovereignty of the Individual.  This is a government that understands that all governments should be instituted by the people and their purpose is the protection of our life, liberty and property.  This is the America our founders intended for us.  This is not the America we live in anymore!

Deception! This seems to be the rule of law for politicians who will stop at nothing in order to push any agenda.  Today facebook is all a buzz with the breaking story of the 27 Democrats in Washington who told everyone they could keep their healthcare when the Affordable Care Health Insurance package was being rammed down the throats of Americans.  The Washington Examiner ran the original story thanks to Byron York and you can read it here (link),  But its not just the Affordable Heathcare Act that is a magnet for political deception and its not just Washington.

Last week the IFO released a report where they painted a rather dismal picture of the next 10 years of Pennsylvania Economics.  One that they tried to spin to downplay the obvious. After toiling through the 91 pages I noticed a singular glaring omission-the impact at the local level of the state mandated pension system.  Sure that’s not going to be paid for by the state….most of it will be paid for through the property taxes-Eli Evankovich made that pretty clear during the house debate on the 1189 amendment that failed- but is that a reason to just ignore it as part of the economic indicators for the next 10 years in Pennsylvania?.

The reason I believe that it is necessary for the IFO to factor in this growing local tax burden is because it will negatively impact the revenue the state receives from sales and use tax.  When the people have less money to spend there will be less revenue for the sales and use tax.  I believe far less than the projected numbers the IFO is claiming.  I also believe that by ignoring these pension numbers the future housing sales projections are also seriously flawed.

The IFO ignored that same pension debacle when looking at SB 76.  You can look at the last 20 years to project future education spending but without factoring in the cost of pensions in education spending in the future, something that will be much different than it was in the previous 20 years, the charts become skewered and falsely represent the facts.  As bad as the IFO projections for future education spending look to the average homeowner already, they are missing the mark by several billion dollars already because they chose to ignore the additional burden of paying for these pensions on the local property owners.

It is estimated that the current combined unfunded pension liability stands at $47 billion dollars.  Every session that passes where noting is done about the problem it only gets incrementally worse.  To begin with we have yet to hit the investment return of 7.5% that was projected in the funding of the pensions.  Every year we fall below that mark the burden  falls on the tax payer, the majority of which will never see that pension since its only for public sector employees.  Certainly the IFO must realize this…if they don’t, I would question how they got their positions to begin with.   If, in the last three years the pensions have been under-performing so poorly, what makes them think as the burden increases on the taxpayers, it will improve?  Wasn’t this a failed lesson in the ancient practice of bloodletting?

The Poverty level has increased in the state while the median income level has decreased showing a shrinking middle class.   Of course when some glitch in statistics appears that presents short-lived good news, that becomes the media and political story of the day but when you step back and start looking at the big picture it paints a very dismal picture of the economic future of this state.

Pennsylvania is sometimes referred to as the cradle of liberty in part because both the Declaration and the Constitution originated in Philadelphia.  That may be true but the assault on individual liberty, especially concerning property rights, is going full tilt in this state and homeownership is on the decline as a result (Yes, I know the housing bubble is in part responsible for that but to continually ignore  the role that property tax plays in all of this is not merely irresponsible, it’s willful incompetence).  The recently released IFO report shows an 11% decrease in homeownership in the last 10 years for 18 to 35 year old’s in the state.  They then go on to say that this will level in the future,  How?  If we continue down this path of using the property of the individual for mass redistribution under the false assumption that because an individual owns or is purchasing their home instead of renting they can somehow afford to carry the burden of education funding on their backs there is no way this will level off.

They certainly see a leveling if the legislative body continues to think that mandates from the state that aren’t funded at the state can continue to be pushed down to the local level where a persons home, which generates no additional revenue, is expected to provide the revenue to pay for those mandates and nowhere is this more evident than with education spending.  They just keep handing out the unfunded mandate perks and then let the locals worry about coming up with the money to pay for it all.

Oddly enough both the PSEA and PSBA can’t seem to read the handwriting on the wall and strongly want to maintain the status quo but to also expand the taxing authority of the schools districts to give them more options to dig further into our pockets.  Their policy arm, the Keystone Research Center, chooses to ignore the facts as well.  Instead they push more deceptions while making ridiculous claims like “10,000 people losing their homes because of the property tax is not reason enough to address the problem!”

Frankly, and call me old fashioned if you want, but I still believe in the founding principle of the reason we entered into society and formed government in the first place was for the protection not the pillaging of property.   Nowhere is this principle ignored as it is with the real estate or property tax.  Show me one other tax in the state of Pennsylvania that has increased the way the property tax has increased in this state in the last 10 years.

In 2004 we had 1,811,636 students enrolled in our schools, today we have 1,757,678 for a loss of 53,978 students (source: http://datacenter.kidscount.org/).  You see what the IFo report fails to tell us is that while homeowership has decreased for those 18 to 35 year old people, the exile of that age group from the state is one of the reasons for the declining student population.  That 11% decline is from those who have remained in the state, perhaps because they can’t afford to leave, but then again, many of them can not afford to stay here as well and so we see an alarming increase in the number of families needing more and more social services to survive.

The cost of education in 2004 was 17 billion dollars whereas today it stands at 28 billion.  At the same time the number of people defaulting on their property tax bills is growing.  The state now stands with more than $1 billion in unpaid property tax debt.    That is a $1 billion revenue shortfall at the local level that has to be made up and until those properties become current or are seized and then sold on auction, that debt burden falls on other property owners increasing their costs related to property taxes.  The PSEA, PSBA and state legislators with their unfunded mandates seem to think this is not a problem.  From the disinformation in the IFO reports, one can assume that they don’t think it’s a problem as well, at least not one to consider when factoring future economics in Pennsylvania.

The problem here is that the future economic status of the state is totally dependent on the discretionary spending of the people of this state.    The greater the tax burden, the less discretionary spending capitol and that means less revenue to the state through the sales tax which currently generates the funds for education spending.  The less sales taxable items purchased means less state revenue for education and with the growing spending problem in education that means higher property taxes.  It then becomes an endless cycle.

Higher property taxes doesn’t just mean higher property taxes.  It means less discretionary revenue for property owners in the state.  That translates into a weaker business environment for the state which translates into less real jobs in the state… at least real family sustaining jobs.

Quick fixes will no longer work, actually they never have, and the solution is most definitely not to expand the taxing authorities of our school districts which will leave legislators free to push down more unfunded mandates to reward special interest lobbying machines.  We need a system of accountability directed at those who generate the costs and those cost generators, especially in education, come from the state through the Department of Education and their regulatory powers through Title 22 of the Pennsylvania Code.

The only way to force that accountability is to demonstrate to them how much these programs actually cost the state by making them accountable to raise the revenue to pay for the programs.

The only way to make that happen is elimination of the school property tax and pushing the entire cost of the state mandated and regulated public school system back where it belongs…in the general assembly.

The only bill that does this is House and Senate Bill 76.

The house leadership and a handful of their cronies spent 18 months on a misinformation campaign doing everything they could to deceive the public about the true nature of these bills.  They blamed everyone but themselves for not being able to do what the people of this state want.  The opposing lobbyists worked hard to help spread that misinformation.    It wasn’t until the house debate where they, accidentally or otherwise, spilled the beans….”How will be pay for the pensions?”   Expanded translation, “How do we fund the unfunded mandates?”

In pushing HB 1189 through they also revealed this intention to force the cost of state government down to the local level by expanding the taxing authorities of the school district so they can pay for the state mandated programs through local taxation and all the while they claimed this was about local control even though the bill does not require a voter referendum to expand these powers.  As I’ve said many times, when many in our legislative bodies talk about preserving local controls, they mean preserving the control of the locals and further infringing on their personal freedoms and liberties.  Their favorite tool of abuse is the school property tax.

America may be angry because they’ve been lied to about the Affordable Health Care act and they should be but for decades, at least since 1965, we’ve been lied to repeatedly about our property taxes and the steady progression of redistributive theft grows faster than all other tax increases and somehow so many in Pennsylvania just don’t seem to care enough to do something about it.

Every promised relief over the past 10 years has been lies, property tax has far exceeded whatever relief we may have seen.  We instituted gambling in Pennsylvania in the hopes of property tax relief and when balanced against the increases in property taxes it has done nothing.

Equally ignored by most is the cost of property tax on raw materials.  Raw materials is the beginning of the entire economic cycle.  Without raw materials there can be no real sustainable wealth.    The wood, the minerals, the food we eat….it all begins on someone’s property.  The higher the property tax on that land, the higher the cost of the goods we purchase.  You see, property tax is simply the thief that just keeps stealing.  We’ll tax the land that produces the raw materials; then we tax the land and property that refines those material into consumer usable products; then we tax the property of the shipping companies that move the products; then we tax the property of the warehouses that store the products; and then tax store that sells the product.  Finally they tax the home that uses the product and this they call the property tax where a single item can be taxed a half dozen times from the raw material to consumer product with each level of taxation driving up the cost of those goods even further.

Perhaps the greatest lie even perpetrated on the citizens of the state is to fool them  into believing they actually are property owners.  Not so.  For the individual homeowner there is no one to pass the property tax bill to; for them they will find themself in a constant state of rental servitude to the state where the annual tribute will be paid or your home will be seized.

To my friends who tell me that I must render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s so I should just pay my property tax and stop complaining I have one thing to say to you.  My home does not belong to the government.  My home belongs to me.  Using a faith principle to promote tyranny of claiming I should render my home to Caesar because somehow it belongs to Caesar is about as far away from the founding principles as one can travel.

Now I’ve used that term tyrant before in relation to the property tax so let me explain myself.  Both Plato and Aristotle described tyrants as individuals or groups who look to their own advantage rather than that of their subjects, and uses extreme and cruel tactics—against their own people as well as others.   I am of the opinion that when it comes to property tax, we see the finest example of this form of the Greek inspired “tyrannos”.  The Latin variation of “tyrannus” literally meant “illegitimate ruler”.  Again, where it falls upon property tax on the common citizen once again we find a justifiable  argument for the terminology.  Is a man’s home his castle or not? Under the property tax the individual is not the Sovereign in his home, the state is.  Is this then not a usurpation of the throne in the individual’s home?  Is this then also not tyranny?

I know that taxes are necessary and when applied by a just government to provide for the necessary functions of government in the securing and protection of our individual rights I get the render unto Caesar argument.  When it comes to my home, take the argument elsewhere.   My home and the land it sits upon belongs to me.  I pay for it and I maintain it! It isn’t adding to my income.  In fact, proper maintenance of my home actually requires more of my income.  Eventually it will need a new roof and when it does, not only will I have to pay for the new roof, I’ll need to have my property reassessed so that my taxes can go up even more.

Under no conditions should it ever mean the government has a right to my property to tax me out of it and then seize and sell it for a fraction of its worth.   If you can defend that and still call yourself an American then I suggest reading the words of our founders once again.  You missed something….actually you missed most of it!