There’s much to be said about fiscal policy in Whitewater, and plenty of time to say it. In my previous post, The Crazy-Wrong Argument on Taxes, I addressed the ludicrous & selfish argument that public grants (in this case, for needless parkland purchases) would have no tax impact. Of course they would.
Now people are free to complain about taxes all they want, but they’d have more credibility if they hadn’t spent years flacking for wasteful spending, totaling in the millions in this city over the better part of a decade, on failed and underperforming ventures like Tax Incremental Districts, an Innovation Center, a Generac Bus, and crony-capitalist WEDC white-collar public grants.
There’s a fit series waiting to be written about a decade of waste and sub-par results on this score.
Like many others in the city, I read in the Gazette yesterday that school taxes for Whitewater will likely rise. Like many others, I’d prefer they didn’t. I’d guess there will be quite the concern on that account.
Yet, for it all, I’d suggest that those who have flacked every one of the wasteful, water-on-sand municipal spending schemes I’ve mentioned above are not the ones now in a credible position to complain about taxes.
We would be in a markedly better position today if we hadn’t spent so much, on so little, truly benefitting so few, for those empty city projects.
School finances are a legitimate concern, but our problems are far deeper than that, and we’ll not improve our situation if we ignore municipal big-ticket mistake after mistake so close at hand, yet apart from our schools.