Thayer Taxpayers Association Blog

In today's SMN, an article by Jan Sisk Lawrence, titled Election ballots set, mentions the following (emphasis mine, not theirs):

County boards

Ambulance - Oregon County Clerk Gary Hensley has announced no one has filed for either of the two positions open on the county ambulance board. He said two candidates will be chosen as write-in candidates. Hensley said the candidates chosen will have to accept the position.

Have to? Are we resorting to involuntary indentured servitude now?

I keep thinking surely I'm misinterpreting this, or maybe it's a typo of some sort, or maybe it was taken out of context. But then I think, in what context is this not a civilian draft?

Again, this isn't in their online edition yet, so if you want to see for yourself, you'll have to get a dead-tree copy.

The SMN printed my letter, but they left out an important portion of it, where I question the discrepancy between the expected revenue then and the expected revenue now:

The TCBA estimates their one-cent tax would generate approximately $340,000 per year. For the sake of discussion, set aside the fact that two times $175,000 is $350,000, not $340,000, for the moment. And let’s refrain from asking whether they were lying then, or are they lying now? After all, what’s a missing $10,000 between friends?

And they decided they didn't like the title "What part of 'no' don't they understand?" So they wrote their own title and made my title the first sentence of the letter, then eliminated a later mention of the same question.

I'm hoping they'll put it in their online edition soon, so I can link to it for your reading pleasure.

But if you want the whole letter, go here.

Check your newspapers, folks. Tomorrow's edition of the South Missourian News comes out this afternoon, and my letter to the editor should be in it.

I have no idea when or if the Quill will print it. Maybe they already have, and I missed it.

Look for the Mayor and the rest of the TCBA to be at the store buying Rolaids later today.

Some of this blog's readers have asked me that question, brought on by Ron Cornelius' moving his business to Mammoth Spring.

You have to wonder, with all the empty buildings here in Thayer, isn't there ONE that would have suited his purposes?

You also have to wonder, how committed to "Thayer Commuunity Betterment" he is if he's willing to abandon the city for greener pastures.

The TCBA is rather secretive about their membership (maybe because it is, in my humble opinion, a sham organization fronting for the Chamber of Commerce), so I don't know how complete this list is:

Ron Cornelius: Owns Allen American Realty. No longer in the Thayer City Limits.
Harvey Allen: Allen Law Office, inside Thayer City Limits.
Sam Currier: Warm Fork Woodlands, north of Thayer.
Jim Hart: The Tek Shop, inside Thayer City Limits.
Dennis Redmon: Bank of Thayer, physically inside Thayer City Limits, but partnered with Howell County Bank.
Allen Deckard: Mayor.
Sheila Smith: Thayer Senior Citizens Center.
Donna Franz: Thayer School Counselor.

I have to wonder if that's why they're so willing to raise our sales taxes -- most of their businesses don't have to charge Thayer sales taxes.

You can check the addresses of the Chamber of Commerce member businesses here. Those that don't have PO Boxes, anyway. Just click the "Members" tab at the top of the page.

I have it on good authority that last night's city council meeting was rather contentious but that nothing was settled.

I haven't confirmed this with my inside source(s), but it's about what I expected.

Right after posting yesterday about the closed city council meeting scheduled for tonight, I emailed it as a news tip to Kkountry 95.

I’ve listened to several top-of-the-hour newscasts on that radio station and across the Ozarks Radio Network.

Not a peep.

There's a notice on the door of city hall of a previously-unscheduled city council meeting at city hall 7:00 PM tomorrow night.

It's a closed meeting, and nobody has spoken to me on the record about what it's about, but the statute listed on the notice as the reason for keeping it closed is the one that allows closed meetings to be held to discuss personnel matters.

Should be interesting. Stay tuned.

I got a verification call from The South Missourian News yesterday. Apparently, they're going to print my letter to the editor.

How much of it, I don't know; it's longer than their usual requirement.

It’s worse than I imagined. Remember that I asked how much money the City of Thayer brought in last year from property taxes? I wanted this information so I could figure out whether or not the TCBA’s latest sales tax proposal was indeed a tax hike in sheep’s clothing, or a simple redistribution of the tax burden.

The South Missourian News is reporting that city hall estimates this year collections for real estate taxes will be approximately $54,883.23 and personal property taxes will be approximately $16,800.35.

That totals $71,683.58.

The TCBA says replacing property taxes with a one-cent city sales tax will bring in $340,000 a year. Even that number is suspect, because they said the HALF-cent sales tax we rejected would have generated $175,000.

Now, I’m no math whiz, but doesn’t two times $175,000 equal $350,000, not $340,000? But for the sake of argument, for now I’ll take their word for it and use the lower number.

So, what they have proposed amounts to a citywide $268,316.42 tax hike without designating what that extra money is to be used for. Funny how they didn’t mention that part when they addressed the city council.

I have a sneaking suspicion what they plan to do with a large chunk of that money – hire an economic developer, which the voters rejected last November.

As I noted previously, on an individual basis, this plan would raise my taxes almost tenfold.

So let’s take a look at who it would benefit.

Basically, it boils down to this – the more expensive your house or business, and the less money you spend in the Thayer economy, the better off you would be under this plan. A person who owns a million dollar house and spends very little money in Thayer would make out like a bandit.

On the other hand, someone with a $20,000 house, who can’t afford to do their shopping in Springfield, or even West Plains, would be SOL. They’d find themselves in the same boat I’m in – a drastically increased tax burden.

TCBA stands for “Thayer Community Betterment Association.” I have to ask myself, whose betterment are they talking about?

Figuring out how much more money you’d have to pay takes a little effort. Get out your checkbooks from last year, and write down the amount of every check you wrote in Thayer. Add them up. This won’t count all the money you spent in cash, but it will give you a ballpark figure, although it will be somewhat lower than the amount you actually spent.

Now take the total you came up with and multiply it by .01. If you spent $20,000 in Thayer last year, your increase will be $200. If you spent $10,000, your tax increase will be $100.

Now, dig out your city property tax records for last year, for both real estate and personal property. Compare this amount with what you figured up under the TCBA’s new proposal.

I’m willing to bet that for the vast majority of Thayer citizens, the TCBA’s plan will cost them at least five times as much as what they’re paying now. If not more.

If this plan was truly simply about making the tax system “fairer”, and not a tax hike in sheep’s clothing, wouldn’t the TCBA have proposed a smaller sales tax increase? To generate the same amount of money as the city’s getting now, the sales tax increase would have been between one-eighth and one-quarter of a percent.

But instead they came up with one cent. I have to wonder again, where does that extra quarter of a million-plus dollars go? And why won’t they tell us?

I guess being in sheep’s clothing makes it that much easier for the wolf to try to pull the wool over our eyes.

I sent this to the Quill and the SMN. If I can find the email addy, I'm sending it to Hill n' Holler, too.

What Part of ‘NO’ Don’t They Understand?

Last November, the citizens of Thayer rejected at the ballot box a plan to raise the city sales tax by a half-cent. This plan was proposed by the Thayer Community Betterment Association, who said it would generate $175,000 a year.

Well, the TCBA is at it again, only this time it’s worse.

At this month’s city council meeting, the TCBA brought up a new scheme – to end city property taxes and replace them with a ONE-CENT sales tax.

I went home and did some figuring. On an individual level, the TCBA’s plan would have increased my tax burden almost TEN TIMES. How much would it have increased yours?

But wait, it gets even worse.

The South Missourian News reports that city revenues this year from real estate taxes will be approximately $54,883.23 and from personal property taxes will be approximately $16,800.35. That adds up to $ 71,683.58.

The TCBA estimates their one-cent tax would generate approximately $340,000 per year. For the sake of discussion, set aside the fact that two times $175,000 is $350,000, not $340,000, for the moment. And let’s refrain from asking whether they were lying then, or are they lying now? After all, what’s a missing $10,000 between friends?

Even if we believe the lower number, it still amounts to a more than a quarter-million dollar tax hike. Funny how the TCBA neglected to mention that part when they addressed the council. The way they talked, it was simply a way to redistribute the tax burden.

And it’s also funny how they’ve neglected to mention what their plans are for that extra quarter-million-plus. To hire an economic developer, like the one the voters rejected, perhaps?

For the moment, our city council has stood up for the taxpayer and refused to put the issue on the ballot. I urge them to continue to do so.

Ron Cornelius of the TCBA is quoted as saying “I do not understand why the council would not allow the citizens to make the choice on the issue.”

Maybe I can answer that. Perhaps because they are familiar with the tactics of the TCBA. Perhaps they remember from November how the TCBA is willing to do whatever it takes, legal or not, to get it’s way. Perhaps they don’t want the TCBA to set up camp right outside the door to the polling place, not three feet from the sign that forbids electioneering within 25 feet of the entrance again. Or perhaps they don’t want any more churches to have their tax-exempt status endangered by the TCBA placing political signs on their lawns.

Cornelius continues, “This would have only improved the quality of life for the citizens of Thayer.”

Which citizens? The ones with million-dollar homes who do all their shopping elsewhere? Because it sure diminishes the quality of life of the citizens with $20,000 homes who do all their shopping right here in Thayer.

Cornelius finishes with, “By doing away with the personal property tax, residents would not be penalized for owning property like houses, cars, boats, and other possessions.”

No, but they WOULD be penalized for such outrageous behavior as buying food and clothing.

What part of ‘NO’ don’t these people understand? And when will they get it through their heads that tax hikes are NOT ‘community betterment.’ And when will they realize that economic development happens when government gets out of the way of businesses, not when it meddles?

If central planning was the key to economic development, the Soviet Union would still be around, and it would be the richest country on earth.

We have to ask ourselves, why is it that every single plan for ‘community betterment’ they put forth involves a tax hike? And why do they all involve taking money OUT of the local economy, instead of bringing money IN, such as through a hotel-motel tax?

If they truly want to better our community, they’d take up a collection and offer a college scholarship to a needy area student, with the stipulation that the student return to Thayer for at least one year after their education is complete. Or they’d get together and donate the labor and materials to build 21st-century restroom facilities at Warm Fork Park and do away with the 17th-century facilities the park has now. There are countless ways a community can better itself without raising taxes, and the TCBA would serve everyone, including it’s own members, better by taking this approach.

But they don’t. They’d rather just raise my taxes and yours. And, coincidentally I’m sure, reduce their own.

John Hutchison
Blogmaster
Thayer Taxpayers Association Blog
www.thayertaxpayers.blogspot.com

I've been running the numbers on the TCBA's proposal to replace the current city property taxes with an additional one-cent sales tax, trying to see if it is a tax increase in sheep's clothing, or a simple redistribution of the tax burden.

For me, it's a BIG TIME tax increase. We're talking almost TEN TIMES as much per year.

I'm currently trying to find out how much money Thayer brought in through property taxes last year, to compare with the amount a one-cent sales tax would bring in.

The half-cent tax increase they tried to push through would generate $175,000 per year in revenue, they claimed. That means a one-cent tax increase would generate $350,000 per year. Is this an increase over the amount the city gets through property taxes?

Stay tuned, and I'll let you know.

School board meetings are often tedious and full of obscure details, so rather than give you a play-by-play, I'm only going to point out some things I found interesting.

I arrived at the high school library about a half-hour early and soon got bored sitting in my chair, the only one in the room. So I did a little investigating.

I couldn't find a card catalog anywhere, so I checked out the shelves themselves.

On the very bottom shelf of one of the Fiction racks, I found two copies of The Fountainhead and one of Atlas Shrugged. My spirits were momentarily lifted at the discovery that the library actually HAD copies of the books. Then I looked at the last time the books were checked out - 1994 and 1995. I may have to donate a copy of Anthem to the school, because that seems more on the intellectual level of high school students. I pulled Rand's books out so that they stuck out and would be more easily noticed.

There was no copy of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, nor was there a copy of Orwell's 1984, but they did have Animal Farm.

I suppose there's a chance the missing books are checked out, but I'm not banking on it.

But there WERE copies of the following - Hillary Clinton, A First Lady For Our Time, Madelieine Albright, and three different Maya Angelou books, including I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings!

I was unsuccessfully looking for a book on Reagan or Jefferson when other audience members began filing in.

Before the meeting started, one of the board members took down the names of everyone in the audience. This strikes me as rather odd. Why do they need to know who is in the audience? Why must I surrender my anonymity to observe the process? I guess what I'm asking is, why is who I am any of their business?

But on to the meeting.

The only important thing about their financial report is that revenue is outpacing expenditures.

There seem to be some unanswered questions about a bill for "elevator maintenance and inspection."

In their Policy Updates, I believe they changed a policy so that bus drivers hired prior to the enacting of their criminal background checks will be required to undergo the background checks, not just new hires which had been the policy. But whether or not they actually changed the policy is far from clear. They did a lot of mumbling and tangentry, so I'm not certain.

Under old business, it was reported that there are seven or eight roof leaks, so look for them to want us to buy them a new roof pretty soon.

Under new business, I have to wonder how many copiers a high school needs. It was reported that the school has one in the office and one in the library in good working order "but the others are about shot." So they are looking into buying new ones.

Also in new business, the school is required to form a "Wellness Committee" to come up with a plan for determining what foods will be served, not only in the cafeteria, but also in vending machines, the concession stand at ballgames, and even classroom birthday parties for students. Thayer has stacked it's committee with what I call Health Nazis - nurses, nutritionists, dietitians and the like. In other words, people who are going to advocate for rabbit food. Not one advocate for individual consumer choice in sight.
The problem with such a plan is that it seeks to address multiple different problems with a one-size-fits-all solution. A child who eats twenty oranges a day is going to get fat, and is not going to be helped by being told to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Likewise, a child for whom a low-carb diet is working does not need to have his pork rinds taken away from him, where a child on a low-fat diet might benefit from ditching his pork rinds.

Should we limit the calories of a student who gets up at 4:00 AM to do farm chores before school, is active in sports, and does evening chores after school? Probably not.

And should we eliminate ALL sodas, including diet ones?

And what happens if a plan is put into place, and the school day molds itself to this plan, only to have the government, as it periodically does, completely change what it considers to be a healthy diet?

But enough of that . . .

The only other item of note is that the high school is looking into buying new/more gym seating. From the quick peek I took into the basketball game last night, it's a totally unnecessary waste of taxpayer money.

It will be at 7:00 PM in the High School Library.

Finally the animal carcasses dumped at the Warm Fork Park are gone. After ten days. I didn't get a chance to check yesterday, but this morning they are gone.

On a hunch, I also checked out the (17th-century) bathroom.

Whoever cleaned up the corpses did not replace the toilet paper. Or clean the dead leaves and stagnant, standing water on the bathroom floor.

Maybe they would have cleaned up the dead animals faster if I'd stayed on their butts with a call every day, but I'm the type of person who believes you should have to pester people into doing their job. One report should be enough.

But that's Thayer city government (and government in general) for you -- ten times the cost of the private sector with one-tenth the efficiency.

Usually, half an hour before a city council meeting, the lights are on and a few people are already milling around. Last night, however, it was dark and nobody was in sight.

So I hopped out of my little car and checked the agenda on the door to City Hall. It said the meeting was January 13th, not the 10th.

That's not right, I thought. The meetings are supposed to be the second Tuesday of each month, which was last night. The 13th is a Friday.

So I hopped back into my little car and drove home, where I called one of the members of the council,who confirmed the meeting was indeed last night.

So I hopped back into my little car, but not before I grabbed my "Tax Hikes are NOT 'Community Betterment.'" cap and placed it on my head.

I have a sneaking suspicion it WASN'T just a typo.

But on to the meeting itself.

Alderman Bob Grimes was not present, so further action on the hiring of a City Manager Administrator was delayed.

The council approved use of the area surrounding the rodeo arena for a circus.

I was disappointed that the council voted unanimously once again to not participate in the Missouri sales tax holiday.

Ron Cornelius with the Thayer Community "Betterment" Association approached the council with a proposal to place on the ballot a question that, if passed, would eliminate Thayer property taxes and replace them with an additional one-cent sales tax.

It struck me that so far ALL of the TCBA's plans for community "betterment" have involved a sales tax increase. Isn't there anything they can do to better the community that doesn't involve raising taxes?

Generally, I would not be opposed to simply placing such an issue on the ballot. But I have seen from experience that the TCBA does not play fair and will do whatever it takes, legal or not, to get their proposals passed. With my own eyes, I witnessed Mildred Cornelius set up shop for the pro-tax crowd right outside the door of the polling place. Right next, in fact, to the sign that says electioneers must keep their distance. And putting pro-tax propaganda on a church lawn, endangering the church's tax-exempt status, is just odious.

So I was glad in this case that Fern Hickinbotham and Steve Alford didn't give them the chance to try it again. Hickinbotham spoke up and said that she felt the people had spoken on the matter and rejected it. Steve Alford agreed with her, and there was no further discussion of the matter. Mildred Cornelius piped up with "But this is a different matter!" to no avail.

I do not know how Buddy Rogers and Bob Grimes (had he been there) would have voted on the issue, but if they would have voted to place it on the ballot, I am virtually certain Mayor Allen Deckard would have broken the tie and placed it on the ballot. Thank God for absenteeism.

Former mayor Al Clark addressed the council with concerns about the use of the old elementary school building as a homeless shelter, and why the mayor and the council seemed totally in the dark about it.

He also said he had been approached by a company interested in opening a welding fabrication business in Thayer.

Then he brought up the possibility that the TCBA's half-cent sales tax hike to hire an economic developer would be on the ballot again in April. I would have asked the council what part of 'no' doesn't the TCBA understand. But instead, he looked back to the economic development program instituted under HIS administration WITHOUT a tax hike.

That's when the current Mayor got nasty with "Yeah, and when you left office, the city was almost broke."

If I could get people to attend these meetings in bigger numbers and actually see with their own eyes how hateful Deckard is during them toward those who oppose, or even question, him, the people of this city wouldn't stand for him being mayor another day.

Clark continued a few more sentences before Deckard cut him off with "Your five minutes are up."

I looked at a certain councilman. He looked at me. We both had to look away to keep from cracking up at Deckard's little tantrum.

There were several routine allocation issues.

The council adjourned to closed session.

Many of the nineteen audience members remained outside awhile, waiting to see if the council would return to open session.

Three members of the TCBA clustered together, griping to each other that the city refuses to to anything to better itself, and that if it won't better itself, they were going to quit trying.

They seem completely unaware that there are ways to better a community that do not involve increasing the tax burden on it's citizens. The people of Thayer are sick of people with money telling those of us without money that we are not paying enough taxes.

It soon became reasonably evident that the council wouldn't be returning to open session, so I left.

[Update: For a scan of the Quill's perspective on the meeting, go take a look here.]

City council meeting tonight, where they're going to discuss putting that awful sales tax hike back on the ballot in April.

There will also be discussion about hiring the new City Manager Administrator.

The meeting is set to start at 7:00 PM tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 10) at Thayer City Hall.

Be there and let your voice be heard.

Sunday, New Years Day, I'm driving home from the grocery store through Warm Fork Park. I notice something out of place lying on the ground between the trash and the bathroom.

Something dead. Not just dead. Skinned. And from that perspective, it looked like it COULD have been a baby. I stopped the car and jumped out to investigate. It wasn't a baby.

It was a bunch of animals. I couldn't readily identify what kind of animals, but the size, shape, and brown fur on their unskinned feet made me think they might have been dogs. There were four of them on the ground, and one in the trash. Someone had dumped them there. In the park. Where children play. It was extremely gross.

I hopped back in my little car and went to the police station. The dispatcher was the only one there. "May I help you?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "Someone has skinned some animals and dumped them in the Warm Fork park."

"Oh, those are 'coons," he informed me. "We know about them, but nobody can do anything about cleaning them up until Tuesday."

This was Sunday, mind you.

Two problems with waiting until Tuesday come to mind.

1. Children play there. The ghoulish death-grimaces of skinned animals will give them nightmares. And the likelihood that more children than usual would be playing there was a real one, because Thayer schools don't end their Christmas break until midweek.

2. Dead things decay over time. This might not be a big problem if these were normal January temperatures, but with daytime temperatures approaching 60, those things are quickly going to get nasty.

It would take five minutes for a city employee to shovel them up and put them in a dumpster somewhere, but by waiting those extra two days, the corpses will turn into a soupy, maggoty, stench-riddled, ten-times-harder-to-clean mess.

But nobody can do anything about it until Tuesday. It was a holiday weekend, and apparently no city employees were on call.

I went home and grabbed my cheap disposable camera and returned to the park, where farther up the walking path I found ANOTHER one. Took about ten pics. Dropped them off at Wally World.

This morning . . . this Tuesday-a-week-later morning, mind you, I drove through Warm Fork park. They're still there.

Hey, the dispatcher didn't say WHICH Tuesday. Maybe I'll blow a couple of them up to billboard size and put on captions such as "Welcome to scenic Warm Fork Park." Or "This is the face of Thayer city government." It is now nine days after I reported them, and they're still there.