Missouri, May 17, 2009: http://www.mofirst.org
Defenders of Liberty,Here's what happened... BOTTOM LINE SUMMARY Our primary objective of stopping the bad bill was met, and our secondary objective of passing reforms was advanced but did not come to be. Unless a bill is being pushed by most of the power brokers, it usually takes more than one year to get it passed. Our "respect the will of the voter" theme and common sense, non-partisan reform resonates, and I think we laid a lot of good groundwork for a follow up effort next year.We faced off against the secretary of state, the Chamber of Commerce, the Missouri Municipal League, the NEA, Farm Bureau and their tag-a-long, the Cattlemen's Association, and the Missouri Restaurant Association -- plus whoever else was behind the scene. The main senate opposition came from Jolie Justus and Joan Bray. When our good language was being debated on the floor, Kevin Engler argued for Bray's amendment to prohibit pay based on signatures. (It was rare for Engler to speak for or against a bill this session. The amendment was soundly defeated in spite of the floor leader's support.)Our first thought was that the best defense was a good offense. That means killing the residency requirement and the prohibition on "payment based on the number of signatures collected" was the number one priority -- we did and that was a significant victory, especially considering the powerful interests on the other side. More importantly, we now have the majority of the senate understanding that there are ways to reform the petition process while still respecting the people's constitutional right to petition.Another significant outcome was exposing the secretary of state's attitude about a fair an unbiased initiative and referendum system. Her people fought us all the way and would not even discuss reasonable, non-partisan reforms. She was clearly defending her power as the petition queen (Read 1 Kings 21:7-10) who can make or break initiatives. Another thing we learned was who truly has the people's interest at heart and who can be "distracted" from that interest by the monied special interests. And, similarly, who actually honors their oath to support and defend the constitutions. Sen. Jim Lembke started out ambivalent about this issue because he doesn't like anything that smacks of direct democracy, but then we showed him Article II, Sec. 49 of the Missouri Constitution. That's where it says the people "reserve" the power to use I&R. Jim then became incensed at the notion that the power brokers wanted to effectively strip the people of that reserved power -- and do so through back-door means. Jim then became a fighting tiger for our issue. It's great to have him in the senate!Waiting to help us in the house when we got the "repaired" bill back over there was Rep. Ed Emery. Ed is a stand up constitutionalist, like Lembke.I mention Ed because he will be facing off against Rep. Mike Parson in the primary when Sen. Delbert Scott vacates his seat (2010 election). The more time I spend at the capitol, the more I realize just how little say the average people actually have. The special interests have a stranglehold and we need guys like Lembke and Emery up there to keep the constitution alive! THANK YOUIt should be noted at this point that all the calls to Engler really helped!! Scores of calls jammed their phones and really made a point that helped me a lot, since they understood that I had a lot of backing.Again, I think we achieved, overall, a large victory. Besides killing the bad bills, I don't think we'll see a republican push for the bad stuff again and I think we have clearly drawn some battle lines. It will be interesting to see who wants to side with the SOS, Missouri Municipal League and NEA next time.Next time we will also start a concurrent effort in the house. In the mean time, I hope people are taking notice of the SOS' disdain of the people's "reserved" right to I&R!Thank you, all, for your support!- Ron
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
WHAT IS AN INITIATIVE PETITION
WHAT IS AN INITIATIVE PETITION?
An Initiative Petition is now circulating to eliminate YOUR property taxes and YOUR personal property taxes in the State of Missouri. Have discovered many do not know what an Initiative Petition is or how it works.
First, in the State of Missouri YOU as a registered voter have the Constitutional Right to Initiative Petition. Initiative petitions are citizen-generated ballot questions, which, if passed by a majority vote, have the force of law, the same as if the state legislature passed them. To get on the ballot, you have to get a large number of signatures. (5% for Statutory Change, 8% for Constitutional Change… of the last Gubernatorial election votes cast)
The above-mentioned Initiative Petition took two years of following the rules, before it was “approved” by the Secretary of State for circulation. The positive aspect is that the petition comes directly from citizens and is passed directly by majority vote. Hence “politicking” is kept to a minimum, since no politician is involved. It is one of the most direct democratic means of passing laws. Of course, it’s still political; because politicians endorse voting for/against and so do interest groups. There will be plenty of TV/Radio advertisements.
Every petition must contain only voters registered in a particular “county”. The petitions must be numbered for each county 100 each in a folder and submitted with circulators’ forms to the Secretary of State by County (in this case) by 5pm May 2, 2010. Where they will be verified and then be distributed to local election authorities for signature verification. If all goes well, will be on the November 2010 ballot.
The most often asked question about this petition is, “what will take the place of the taxing”, my pat answer is to “ask your representatives in Jefferson City and largely the School Districts how they are going to change their reckless spending, ask them where the taxes YOU voted on from Lottery and Casino Gambling have gone that were presented to us to go to schools, we thought that was going to relieve our tax burden. And if you want your school to have those thousands of dollars in your property taxes, then by all means “give” it to your school, it will now become your discretionary funds to do what you want with. And the most important part of this Initiative is that you will now OWN your properties, they cannot be taken away from you forever increasing property taxes you cannot afford.
This Initiative Petition is being circulated by volunteers and is in need of volunteers, donations for costs and potential legal fees are needed. If you are interested in ELIMINATING your property taxes and personal property taxes contact BJ Lawrence 636-271-7817 beejayl@peoplepc.com
An Initiative Petition is now circulating to eliminate YOUR property taxes and YOUR personal property taxes in the State of Missouri. Have discovered many do not know what an Initiative Petition is or how it works.
First, in the State of Missouri YOU as a registered voter have the Constitutional Right to Initiative Petition. Initiative petitions are citizen-generated ballot questions, which, if passed by a majority vote, have the force of law, the same as if the state legislature passed them. To get on the ballot, you have to get a large number of signatures. (5% for Statutory Change, 8% for Constitutional Change… of the last Gubernatorial election votes cast)
The above-mentioned Initiative Petition took two years of following the rules, before it was “approved” by the Secretary of State for circulation. The positive aspect is that the petition comes directly from citizens and is passed directly by majority vote. Hence “politicking” is kept to a minimum, since no politician is involved. It is one of the most direct democratic means of passing laws. Of course, it’s still political; because politicians endorse voting for/against and so do interest groups. There will be plenty of TV/Radio advertisements.
Every petition must contain only voters registered in a particular “county”. The petitions must be numbered for each county 100 each in a folder and submitted with circulators’ forms to the Secretary of State by County (in this case) by 5pm May 2, 2010. Where they will be verified and then be distributed to local election authorities for signature verification. If all goes well, will be on the November 2010 ballot.
The most often asked question about this petition is, “what will take the place of the taxing”, my pat answer is to “ask your representatives in Jefferson City and largely the School Districts how they are going to change their reckless spending, ask them where the taxes YOU voted on from Lottery and Casino Gambling have gone that were presented to us to go to schools, we thought that was going to relieve our tax burden. And if you want your school to have those thousands of dollars in your property taxes, then by all means “give” it to your school, it will now become your discretionary funds to do what you want with. And the most important part of this Initiative is that you will now OWN your properties, they cannot be taken away from you forever increasing property taxes you cannot afford.
This Initiative Petition is being circulated by volunteers and is in need of volunteers, donations for costs and potential legal fees are needed. If you are interested in ELIMINATING your property taxes and personal property taxes contact BJ Lawrence 636-271-7817 beejayl@peoplepc.com
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Ridiculous Lawsuit Over Assesments in Jackson County
Ridiculous Lawsuit Over Assessments in Jackson County
Talk about having your cake and eating it, too. School districts loved it when property values skyrocketed throughout this decade along with their budgets. But now that values of fallen, KCTV reports that several school districts around Kansas City have filed suit to prevent the county assessor from lowering property values. These people are living in an alternate universe. The state Constitution already protects the taxing districts by allowing them to roll up their tax rates to a revenue-neutral level in the rare years like this when property values decline. Is that good enough for them?
Of course not. Yesterday’s Post-Dispatch documented how teachers throughout St. Louis are getting their standard pay raises despite the economy, and the districts just assume that taxpayers will pick up the slack even as many of them have seen declines in their own income. At least the schools in St. Louis have, so far, followed the law and not filed a lawsuit.
When you base a tax system on property values, as we do in Missouri, you have to take the good with the bad. Sometimes, but not often, values will go down. For the school districts to sue in order to force the use of last year’s assessments — which everybody knows are no longer accurate — is the absolute height of bureaucratic arrogance.
How about this for an example of a typical made-up PR claim, from the KCTV story, in which the people filing the lawsuit to make taxpayers pay more actually claim to be protecting homeowners:
The source [from one of the public school districts] said the problem for homeowners is if they go to sell their home, most buyers will not go over the county’s assessed value, so sellers could get much less then what their home is worth.
I think many home purchasers don’t even know the assessed value of a home when they buy it. Most of them certainly don’t care. The idea that they won’t go over the assessed value is ridiculous. People generally know just the market value of a home, and that the current market values are lower than they were in the past.
Posted by David Stokes at 1:59 pm in Property Rights, The Constitution Permalink © 2009
Talk about having your cake and eating it, too. School districts loved it when property values skyrocketed throughout this decade along with their budgets. But now that values of fallen, KCTV reports that several school districts around Kansas City have filed suit to prevent the county assessor from lowering property values. These people are living in an alternate universe. The state Constitution already protects the taxing districts by allowing them to roll up their tax rates to a revenue-neutral level in the rare years like this when property values decline. Is that good enough for them?
Of course not. Yesterday’s Post-Dispatch documented how teachers throughout St. Louis are getting their standard pay raises despite the economy, and the districts just assume that taxpayers will pick up the slack even as many of them have seen declines in their own income. At least the schools in St. Louis have, so far, followed the law and not filed a lawsuit.
When you base a tax system on property values, as we do in Missouri, you have to take the good with the bad. Sometimes, but not often, values will go down. For the school districts to sue in order to force the use of last year’s assessments — which everybody knows are no longer accurate — is the absolute height of bureaucratic arrogance.
How about this for an example of a typical made-up PR claim, from the KCTV story, in which the people filing the lawsuit to make taxpayers pay more actually claim to be protecting homeowners:
The source [from one of the public school districts] said the problem for homeowners is if they go to sell their home, most buyers will not go over the county’s assessed value, so sellers could get much less then what their home is worth.
I think many home purchasers don’t even know the assessed value of a home when they buy it. Most of them certainly don’t care. The idea that they won’t go over the assessed value is ridiculous. People generally know just the market value of a home, and that the current market values are lower than they were in the past.
Posted by David Stokes at 1:59 pm in Property Rights, The Constitution Permalink © 2009
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