St. Louis city and county plan to extract 4.3 billion from an already ailing economy

According to the St. Louis Business Journal, St. Louis City and County are planning to ask the Obama administration for 4.3 billion from his stimulus package. The county wants $1.8 billion for 95 projects and the city wants $2.5 billion for 150 projects. The bulk will go to Metro and Metro Link.

This just goes to show you that mismanagement will not go unrewarded. Let's see....... hey buddy, do you got an extra $4.3 billion to spare?

U City Buget Available

U City Budget

Board to Decide on Destination UCity Schools Recommendations

After five months of soliciting community input on the future of its schools and students, the School District of University City Board of Education will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, December 16 to vote on recommendations developed from its Destination U. City Schools Community Engagement program. Since July, several hundred University City parents, residents and other stakeholders have attended . . . read more

Highway 40 Open!

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County plans to throw good money after bad

St. Louis County is eligible to receive federal funds from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to purchase foreclosed or abandoned homes and to rehabilitate, resell, or redevelop these homes in order to stabilize neighborhoods and stem the decline of house values of neighboring homes. The County's plan for using these funds is posted at http://www.stlouisco.com/plan/nsp.

Joan Bray proposes to remove 400 million from ailing economy

Missouri State Senator, Joan Bray, has proposed a sales tax on e-commerce transactions. She points out that this tax would increase Missouri Tax Revenue by 400 million dollars. She fails to note that every dollar taken out of our economy is a dollar less spent in our businesses (who are currently laying people off).

Give our economy a stimulus, tell Joan to take a hike!

For more information see: Taxing e-commerce could fill state coffers in 2009

Missouri Roundtable For Life special presentation

Since the passage of constitutional Amendment 2 in 2006, restrictions on taxpayer funding of abortions and human-cloning research have been swept away. Missouri Roundtable For Life will explain exactly what has happened and how you can help put things right. The Townhall Meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 16, 2008, at the St. Charles County Government Center, 201 North Second Street, Room 115, St. Charles, MO 63301. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the event will end at 8:00 p.m. Special Guest speakers include State Senator John Loudon and Missouri Roundtable For Life President Ed Martin. For more information call Nancy Holth at 636-373-2481 or visit us at www.moroundtable.org.

County Budget Available

The 2009 County budget is now available on-line. I suggest you a least look at the Executive Summary to see how your money is being spent!

How Obama got Elected

John Zogby was recently commissioned to do a poll of Obama supporters. For more information see http://www.howobamagotelected.com/. Above you can see how people answered the questions. Below, you can see the results of the

Zogby Poll:

512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08 MOE +/- 4.4 points
97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates
Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions
57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)
71.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)
82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)
88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)
56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).
And yet.....
Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes
Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter
And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!
Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.
Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we "gave" one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)

Letter to Russ Carnahan

Dear Mr. Carnahan,

By ordering the release of Lakhdar Boumediene, U.S. District Judge, Richard J. Leon, has comitted treason (I looked it up). Regardless of any previous court rulings, giving aid and comfort to the enemy is treason. Could you please see that the law is enforced?

Next year is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth

From Michael Zak:

In his first speech after the election, Barack Obama compared himself (quite favorably) to Abraham Lincoln, the greatest Republican of them all. Soon, we can expect Obama to claim that Ronald Reagan would have voted for him.

Democrats can steal our Republican heritage only if we let them.
As Lincoln never forgot, the Republican Party was established to oppose the pro-slavery policies of the Democrats: "The Republican Party, on the contrary [to the Democrats], holds that this government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and that slavery is an unqualified evil. [Republicans] will oppose, in all its length and breadth, the modem Democratic idea that slavery is as good as freedom."

"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY, AS WE UNDERSTAND IT."

Lincoln made sure to conclude the Republicans' Emancipation Proclamation: "I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God."
And, it was President Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) who proclaimed the last Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving Day.

By honoring Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and other Republican heroes at events throughout 2009, you can help the Republican Party get Back to Basics.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country. He is the author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. See http://www.republicanbasics.com/ for more information.

James Ashley, Republican anti-slavery congresssman

Grand Old Partisan salutes Rep. James Ashley (R-OH), born this day in 1824. After entering politics as a Democrat, he helped establish the Ohio Republican Party because of his firm opposition to slavery. He chaired the state convention in 1858.
In 1858, Ashley was elected to the first of five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was the first Member of Congress to introduce a constitutional amendment to ban slavery, though his was not the version that eventually passed. Rep. Ashley introduced the resolution to impeach President Andrew Johnson (D-TN).
President Ulysses Grant later appointed him Territorial Governor of Montana.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country. He is the author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. Each day, the Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates 154 years of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information.

Myths About the Great Depression

With the recent financial meltdown and the election of Barack Obama, there is a lot of discussion of Franklin Roosevelt and bringing back "New Deal" type programs. Let's not forget that what should have been a two to three year recession turned into a ten year depression. A recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece "Five Myths About the Great Depression" gives some insight into the cause of the "depression" and reasons for its extension.

Also read "The Forgotten Man" by Amity Shales. This book gets to the truth about the Great Depression and explains why people were forced into misery by the Roosevelt administration. If we do not learn our lesson of history, we will be doomed to relive it.

County Chief Operating Officer Defends Phoney Tax Assesments

According to the St. Louis Business Journal, County chief operation officer, Garry Earls, is spending a lot of time defending inflated tax bills. He stated, "we're going to get lots of complaints, but there is no validity to those compaints."

Do you think somebody at the county should have done something about the 9% annual tax increases? Apparently nobody in the County thought so. The County and other taxing authorities kept taking the money and spending it. Now Earls says, "the real issue is if there's been a drop in property value. That will impact (collections) in 2009." You think?

Perhaps someone should have thought twice about taking wind falls due to inflated home prices. They did not. Now the County, our schools and our parks will have problems paying bills based in income they really did not have. Who will lose their jobs for this miscalculation..... no one. But you will pay.

Liberal Fascism

In light of our current economic situation and the election of Barack Obama, I highly recommend reading "Liberal Fascism" by Jonah Goldberg. This is a great historical look back at politics of the last hundred years and can give insight into the future.

In an interview, Goldberg states about his definition of fascism: "I’ve got a long definition in the book, but a short one would be an instinctual religious impulse - usually gussied-up as a secular or modern ideology - that seeks to impose uniformity in thought and action throughout the entire society. All oars in a fascistic society must pull together. The personal is political because everything goes together. Political correctness is one name we give to such efforts in civil society. "

Do We Need Another Economic Stimulus Package?

Rising unemployment, failing banks and falling home values are all signs of a failing economy. Time for another economic stimulus package, right? Wrong!

For all of the bad news there is some very good news. Falling oil prices and related gas prices means all of us already have more money in our pockets. The cost of doing business is dropping like a rock, both from direct expenses from vehicle operation and from the cost of shipping products to the business. Oil is the basis for other products such as plastic. More savings.

A dropping exchange rate (strong dollar) is also more good news. This reinforces lower oil prices and means lower food prices and lower cost of goods imported. More money in our pockets!

The lower cost of a home means a great opportunity for many people. This along with low interest rates means opportunity for first time home buyers.

This might all be good news but the runaway price of commodities should never of happened in the first place. Our politicians need to make sure we open up more oil fields. They should encourage but not subsidise alternative fuels such as wind and solar. The cost of this energy is free except for the infrastructure. They should be able to compete with low oil and natural gas prices. Use of coal and nuclear energy will also put downward pressure on energy prices.

The new term for the new administration should be fiscal responsibility.

-Ted Engler

Thank You to Station 97.1 for Supporting Our Candidates

University Township thanks radio station 97.1 for supporting our candidates during the 2008 Presidential Election.

We highly recommend that you tune to "Allman in the Morning" Monday through Friday from 6:00am to 9:00am. and Randy Tobler's show on Saturday from 6:00am to 11:00am. It is always a good way to start the day!

How did it happen?

McCain Palin Rally in O'Fallon

Obama Thugs in St. Louis

Last week St. Louis City and County Prosecuting Attorney's offices threatened to "step up" and set the record straight if anyone misrepresents Barak Obama's positions. Does this mean that they will use their offices to prosecute the offender? Will this apply to misrepresentation of John McCain's views? Who will determine what is true or not?

In fact this is criminalizing political speach and a clear turn towards Fascism by Missouri's Democrat Party.

See KMOV's interview of Joyce and McCulloch.

See Gateway Pundit's remarkson this issue

Gibbons gets the job done!

From Mike Gibbons' website http://www.michaelgibbons.com:
Protecting taxpayers from back door tax increases under the veil of reassessment was my top legislative priority this year. All senators and nearly all representatives joined me to pass a property tax reform package (Senate Bill 711) that protects taxpayers by mandating rollbacks, closing tax increase loopholes, requiring early and more information, and expanding tax relief for low-income seniors and the disabled.
Mandating Tax Rate Rollbacks
For too long, home and business owners have been hit by higher taxes caused by reassessment. The bill mandates that all taxing jurisdictions, regardless of whether they are operating at or below their tax rate ceiling, must roll back their tax rate to counter reassessment increases. Currently, only taxing jurisdictions operating at their tax rate ceiling are required by Missouri's Constitution to roll back to protect taxpayers, leaving taxing jurisdictions operating below their ceiling to approve back door tax increases with no legal recourse. By refusing to roll back, in 2007 in St. Louis County alone, taxing jurisdictions raised residents' property taxes by more than $46.6 million.
Closing Tax Increase Loopholes
We also ended the practice of applying voter approved increases to new reassessments, stopping double whammies on taxpayers. The bill closes a loophole that allows taxing districts to apply new voter approved levies to future and unknown assessments. The Attorney General's office issued an opinion in 2003(107-2003) stating that taxing jurisdictions can take a tax increase approved by the voters, for example in 2006, and then apply that new tax rate to the higher reassessed value in 2007.
Early Notice of Projected Taxes
I believe it’s wrong that taxpayers only learn of their tax bill about one month before it's due. Taxpayers have a right to know what their tax bill will be as early as possible so they can better plan for reassessment challenges and budget for the taxes they owe. SB711 requires that taxpayers receive a projected tax liability along with their reassessment notices by June 15.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the next President of the United States

Issue ---> Property Taxes

You purchase a new house. Its taxes are 2,000 per year. OK, you decide that, although you can barely afford the mortgage, you will also sacrifice to pay those taxes. The problem? County taxes are going up 10% and after 10 years you are now paying $4,000 annually.

Not to worry. Our elected officials come to the rescue. Their solution is to try to make you feel better. They say: "why, your property value is skyrocketing, you are the winner", "the kids need a good education", "expenses keep going up." REALLY!

I attended a citizens meeting where people testified as to the hardships they were suffering due to these taxes. One citizen was forced to sell her house. The meeting was attended by both County and state officials. So what happened: NOTHING!

For more information see: SAINT LOUIS COUNTY RESIDENTS FOR PROPERTY TAX RELIEF NOW

The End of Highway 40