TRIM truth, Re: Update: Jack Johnson's contempt for the voters and county charter

On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Patricia Douglas <patriciadouglas08@yahoo.com> wrote:

The TRIM property tax cap was put in place by white Prince George's County residents in the late-70s because they didn't want to see their tax dollars going to pay for the increasingly black school system that they were pulling their kids out of.  Now, middle and upper class blacks are doing their work for them, because they to, by and large, have pulled their kids out of the public schools.  TRIM was founded in racism.  I think Jack Johnson's government has been incompetent, but that is no reason to hamstring future, and hopefully more competent, county executives and councils.  White business owners (developers in particular), mostly who live outside of Prince George's County, still control politics in the county, with their money and influence ofver black officials.  Same game, different day.

TRIM was not founded in racism, it founded in distrust.  Voter distrust of dishonest politicians.  Elected officials who raised taxes "for the schools" or "for public safety," but spent the money on something else, then cried poor and raided taxes again "for the schools" or "for public safety."

And then kept repeating the cycle.

I will believe that the county really needs more money when, and only when,

• Jack's entourage disappears and he drives his own car.
  
• ALL "deputy director" positions are eliminated.
  
• All consulting contracts to Friends of Jack or friends of anyone else are eliminated.
  
• The county and schools stop spending millions of dollars to improve offices for bureaucrats (or for luxury gyms) and use the money they have to fix deteriorating schools.
  
• The school system administrative overhead is dramatically reduced.
  
• All of the seemingly dozens or hundreds of committees and commissions are defunded, or if any are really essential, put on an absolute minimal budget.
  
• Glossy vanity publications like  "Gorgeous Prince George's" and the similar council publication are eliminated to cut back to essential information printed with black ink on cheap white recycled paper.

We have no guarantee that any increased revenues will be used as promised.  In fact, the record of the county government over the past several decades shows us that increased revenues are generally NOT used as promised.  

People who are willing to let the county raise taxes are as just gullible as Charlie Brown was when year after year after year he was stupid enough to believe that this time Lucy would not pull the football away.