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

Issue ---> Red Light Cameras

In a County with a horrible reputation for tiny municiplities whose main source of income is traffic tickets, now we have Red Light Cameras. These cameras are automated systems for finding people who run red lights and sending them tickets. Sitting on the side of the road with radar was not efficient enough, these new systems can send out hundreds of tickets a month with no effort by the municipality.

There are always compelling reasons that our municipalities do things. In this case, they proport to stop accidents. How else could they justify automated law and order? However, studies show this may not be the case. In fact, these systems may increase accidents. The truth is, if there are problems in a specific intersection, there are ways to fix it. These include better warning signs, retiming traffic lights, better attention to traffic flow. With Red Light Cameras, there are incentives to keep the intersection difficult to negotiate.

Regarding Municipalities and their police, the is little or no trust between these entities and the citizens. We have the Municipalites and their officials watching the citizens with video cameras and the citizens watching the police with video cameras. Lets face it, when the cameras were turned onto the community of Georgetown, the place went into virtual collapse.

This is a miserable way for our communites to serve the citizens. The County should put a stop these cameras right away.

Republican Central Committee Trashes Trash Code

On Wednesday evening, during their regularly scheduled monthly meeting, the St. Louis County Republican Central Committee voiced its opposition to St. Louis County’s recently enacted Waste Management Code. This code, approved last year, provides for the recently written “Trash Districts Plan.”

This plan establishes a minimum level of service that must include once-a-week trash pick up, a once-a–week recycling pick up and twice-a-year bulk waste pick up. This plan will apply to unincorporated areas and municipalities, with some exceptions. The county will contract for and manage these services.

The opposition was through a resolution passed by a large majority of the Central Committee members and it stated in part, “we disagree with the legislation passed by the St. Louis County Council late in 2006 that would restrict county residents from selecting their own trash haulers and deny individuals and subdivisions the ability to negotiate and contract with whatever trash haulers they want. Citizens of St. Louis County have had this right of ‘trash hauler choice’ for over 60 years and we do not believe it is in the best interest of taxpaying citizens for the county to create another level of bureaucracy by becoming ‘the trash hauler of St. Louis County’.”

Opposition to this ordinance came from John Campisi for the County Council’s 6th District who has amassed meetings of up to 400 people against the code. Campisi stated that the meetings were a response to an overwhelming number of phone calls and e-mails protesting the county’s intention to create trash districts. Kurt Witzel, Committeeman for Oakville Township, introduced the resolution objecting to the Trash Code. While the stated purpose of the code is to provide uniform service at a reduced price, Kurt stated that he did not believe that the “big government” approach would work. He stated further “as Republicans, we believe that the least government is the best government” and that “the role of government should be to only do for the citizens collectively what they can not easily do for themselves individually.” The citizens of St. Louis County have been providing this service for themselves for over 60 years.

When asked to comment, John Winston, Committeeman for the Gravois Township and Chairman of the St. Louis County Republican Central Committee stated, “this sounds like a good idea on paper but when a large governmental body tries a ‘one size fits all’ approach more harm than good is usually done.” For example, some people may take their recyclable materials in person and do not want to pay for something they did themselves. Or, some people may only want once a week pick up service, no recycling or bulk pick-up and do not want to pay for extra services they do not need. Either way, citizens are paying for services not needed.

The Central Committee hopes that the County Council will revisit this issue and asks concerned citizens to contact their respective Councilman and the County Executive. For more information visit the county’s web site: www.stlouisco.com.

The St. Louis County Central Republican Committee is comprised of elected Committeewomen and Committeemen elected in their respective Townships. For more information visit: www.stlcountygop.org , e-mail: terjonlaur@aol.com

The beauty of an argument

Here is an Article I read several years ago. Written by John Leo and printed in U.S. News & World Report, it laments how the art of debate has been lost. It reminds me of a friend who invites my wife and I to dinner on a regular basis. However, she forbids political conversation at dinner (or any other time for that matter). This is unfortunate because I enjoy other peoples' points of view and the opportunity to find out why they think the way that they do.

John Leo stated:

Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan fought sharply during the day but enjoyed having the occasional drink or two together after work. In the old days, William F. Buckley Jr. would hold public debates with all comers (I recall Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Steve Allen), then go out to a pleasant dinner with his opponent. Nowadays, Buckley or his adversary would probably be required to take umbrage, hurl some insult, then stomp out in a snit. I caught the tail end of the civil-argument culture when Garry Wills and I started out many years ago as the original columnists in the National Catholic Reporter. We would frequently attack each other's ideas, but it never affected our friendship. Why should it?

For the complete article got to: The beauty of argument

Post-Dispatch Distorts Poll

I don't feel comfortable. Do you feel comfortable?

According to the Post-Dispatch:
WASHINGTON — Unlike Muslim minorities in many European countries, U.S. Muslims are highly assimilated, close to parity with other Americans in income and overwhelmingly opposed to Islamic extremism, according to the first major, nationwide random survey of Muslims.

The survey by the Pew Research Center reported that 78 percent of U.S. Muslims polled said the use of suicide bombings against civilian targets to defend Islam is never justified. But 5 percent said it is justified "rarely," 7 percent said "sometimes," and 1 percent said "often"; the remaining 9 percent said they did not know or declined to answer.

Their headline reads: U.S. Muslims oppose extremism, poll says

Chappelle-Nadel Sponsors Earth Day Event

Maria Chappelle-Nadal sponsored a public forum on energy and environment issues at the U City Library. Discussion topics included how to increase energy efficiency at the state, city and residential levels. Representatives from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and AmerenUE were among those participating in the discussion.

About 25 people attended. Her panel discussed ways not waste energy and therefore reduce costs. However, there was no discussion of how to increase energy production in Missouri therefore reducing cost. Further, there was no discussion of how Ethonol production was driving up food costs. U City Council member, Lynn Ricci, did mention how she wanted the U City Police to write more traffic tickets to slow people down (perhaps to save fuel?).

It was a lot of fun for those that attended.

New Missouri Jobs Nearing 100,000 Mark

SPRINGFIELD– Gov. Matt Blunt today announced new employment numbers that show Missourians are adding new jobs in record numbers as 93,300 new Missouri jobs have been created since January 2005. The new mark represents enough new jobs to employ more than half of all the people living in Springfield where the governor made the announcement.
"I am proud of Missouri’s hard-working employees and job creators for their success in fueling our strong state economy," Blunt said. "As Governor, I will continue to promote and enact pro-job, pro-growth initiatives to assist their efforts in moving Missouri forward and creating quality, family supporting jobs."
Missouri’s renewed entrepreneurial spirit and improved business climate led to the creation of 10,800 news jobs in March. In the same month, construction employment increased by 3,500 jobs. Employment in professional and business services industries was up by 2,400 jobs, with most of the gain occurring in administrative and support services. Retail trade employment was up by 1,200, while wholesale trade added 800 jobs. The financial activities sector experienced a gain of 1,000 jobs in March, while leisure and hospitality employment went up by 800.
Blunt is moving Missouri forward by making Missouri a better place to live, work and raise a family. Since taking office in 2005 the governor has worked to improve the state's economic outlook by passing aggressive litigation reform, workers’ compensation reform and proactive recruiting tools like the Missouri Quality Jobs Act. There are thousands of new business opportunities in Missouri, and every day more are being created or moving here.

Time table would undercut troops

From Senator Bond's web site: – U.S. Senator Kit Bond, the Vice-Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, today applauded his Senate colleagues for defeating a Democratic proposal that would have set a deadline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
“Today the majority of my colleagues voted to support our troops. I am pleased that the Democrats voted down their own non-sensical, non-binding resolution,” said Bond. “A political timetable would have signaled to this enemy that the United States Senate doesn't think the terrorists will have to wait too long and would have undercut the very leaders the Senate confirmed as fit to lead our troops.”
Bond also praised the overwhelming bipartisan approval of two resolutions affirming the support of funding for troops in Iraq. S. Con. Res 20 passed by a vote of 82 – 16 and S. Res. 107 passed with a vote of 96 - 2. Bond stressed that it is critical that the Senate now moves to vote on the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill, which will provide funds for our servicemen and women and their families.
“I hope that the Democratic leadership will now allow us to take up the Supplemental War bill that will provide much needed funds for our troops in the field,” said Bond.
Bond pointed out that today’s vote signals the majority in the United States Senate is prepared to give General Patraeus’ plan for a new direction in Iraq a chance for success. Early signs are positive, said Bond. News reports a decrease in violence, including significant decreases in bomb deaths and execution-style slayings since Patraeus changed course in Iraq.
As Vice-Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Bond also emphasized that the overwhelming consensus of the intelligence community is that a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would be disastrous and would empower al Qaeda. Providing American troops to help the Iraqi’s take control of their government is the best option for a lasting political solution.

What ever happened to ACORN?

Speaking of Federal Attorneys not doing their jobs. What ever happened to the prosecutions of ACORN? The National Legal and Policy Center stated:

"The new 110th Congress convened earlier this month with something it hadn’t had in a dozen years: a Democratic-controlled House and Senate. But amid the party’s hoopla over Nancy Pelosi’s ascent to House Speaker is the reality that its Senate majority is a thin 51-49. That edge is partly the result of a close 2006 race in Missouri, where Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill defeated incumbent Republican Senator Jim Talent. By more than one account her margin of victory in some measure owed to voter fraud. And the likely culprit is an operator long familiar to the American political landscape: the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. Investigative reporting by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Wall Street Journal and other news sources reveals that the nationwide network of Leftist nonprofit groups aggressively played fast and loose with the voter registration process in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas. And Missouri isn’t the only state where ACORN has worked its strange magic. " Click here for more

According to sound evidence ACORN has eroded our citizens right to vote and
nothing is being done about it. It is time for more Federal Prosecutors to be fired.

Wall Street Journal Chastises ‘Rookie’ McCaskill

The national media is keeping a close eye on Claire McCaskill even if the Missouri media will not. The Wall Street Journal took McCaskill to task yesterday for putting Big Labor ahead of national security. Not surprisingly, McCaskill received more than $350,000 from Big Labor political action committees, according to PoliticalMoneyLine. At issue is Democrat attempts to try and impose collective bargaining rights for all 43,000 screeners at the Transportation Security Administration. As The Journal correctly points out in an editorial, Congress expressly denied such organizing ability when it created TSA in 2001 “on the sensible grounds that union work rules would compromise security.” With Republicans stepping up to oppose the measure, McCaskill offered an alternative in which airport screeners would still be forced into collective bargaining, though the TSA head would have the right to put union rules aside in case of "emergency" or "imminent threat." That’s when Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina called McCaskill on the carpet: “Mr. DeMint asked on the Senate floor last week if Ms. McCaskill considered the global war on terror to be such an ‘emergency,’ and she said no--but that a hurricane might qualify. We didn't know TSA screened for bad weather,” opined The Journal. “Mr. DeMint also asked if al Qaeda constituted an imminent threat. Ms. McCaskill largely dodged the question, noting instead that denying union rights because of ‘world-wide terror’ was ‘specious reasoning.’ We realize that rookie Senators feel obliged to repay their supporters, but someone more senior should protect Ms. McCaskill from embarrassing herself so publicly.” To read the editorial, go to: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009751

University City Police & Fire Personnel to Receive Culture Training

Police officers are scheduled to attend a three part series on Bosnian, Asian, and Jewish cultures as it impacts law enforcement agencies. The series began March 6 with lessons on Bosnian culture presented by Eldar Causevic, an adjunct professor from Washington University.
Seeing the value of lessons on cultural diversity, Police Chief Charles Adams invited Fire Chief Olshwanger and his staff to attend future sessions.

University City Census Profile

See a copy of the U City Census profile:

U City Census

Red Flags Hit the Field on Meet the Press

This Sunday, Tim Russert hosted a debate between Clair McCaskill and Jim Talent on his "Meet the Press." When discusing who was a great president, Clair McCaskill stated that while President Bill Clinton was a great president she "would not let her daughter near him."

At that moment the red flags hit the field. Instead of stopping the game and questioning McCaskill about her statement, Russert moved on.

It a shame that programs like Meeth the Press (nobody "met the press" on the show) no longer have any credablity.

Don't Forget the VP Parade July 1st.

Veiled Prophet Parade

a 128 year tradition

Can I take my taxes as a charitable deduction?

Over the past four years University City resident's taxes skyrocketed. Now it appears that "donations" to our Zoo and Museums were not exactly voluntary and did create hardship.

From the St.Louis usiness Journal:

Visitors to the Saint Louis Zoo can now visit the Insectarium's butterflies, Peruvian fire sticks and ladybugs for free. A giant model dinosaur is getting a new lining at the Saint Louis Science Center. Other upgrades, maintenance projects and educational programs are under way at the Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri History Museum and the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Thank St. Louis city and County residents for them. These improvements are due in part to larger property tax contributions made to the five member institutions within the Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District (ZMD). District revenue increased 8 percent from $62.2 million in 2004 to $67.3 million last year. That followed a 19 percent tax revenue gain of $10 million in 2004 over 2003, according to ZMD financial statements.

Post-Dispatch Censors On Full Alert

From Missouri GOP:

The media typically has a liberal bias. Fine, we get it, it’s our job to fight it. We send out releases detailing how nearly 50,000 jobs have been created in Missouri since Governor Blunt took office, how our state’s unemployment rate has dipped below the national average, how under Governor Blunt’s leadership Republicans in the House and Senate have increased spending on education by over 1/3 of a billion dollars. And those are only a few of the accomplishments we promote to the media outlets in our state. However, despite being spoon-fed the facts, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch continues to ignore the truth and publish blatantly biased articles favoring liberal Democrats in our state. Recently, however, the Post-Dispatch took their liberal bias one step further. Over half a dozen Republican supporters have reported to our office that they submitted letters to the editor on topics ranging from support of the governor’s ethics reform bill to dismay about ludicrous scandal rumors in Jefferson City. Our Executive Director, Jared Craighead submitted a letter over a week ago to all members of the Post-Dispatch editorial staff and received absolutely no response and just this weekend state Rep. Carl Bearden submitted a letter in response to brutal attacks by the Post and his letter was not printed. With a Republican governor and majorities in the House and Senate, Republicans have turned our state around. A $1 billion debt created by Democrats has been turned into a budget surplus which has spurred economic growth and created thousands of new jobs for hard-working Missourians. The Post-Dispatch has made it clear that they are not interested in the facts and the truth has fallen on deaf ears. Don’t go to the Post-Dispatch for your news – you won’t get the whole story. Click here to read Rep. Bearden’s letter.