Viewpoint: Local governments should face reality

By Jeff Reynolds, Alexandria resident

October 17, 2009 06:03 pm

— Apparently local governments in Madison County don’t get the new reality. When the state put limits on property taxes it was meant to help working-class families keep their homes. It was not meant to allow local taxing units to go on a taxation spree. The city of Anderson lost 20,000 good-paying jobs because politicians listen to corporations not taxpayers. Our leaders allowed homegrown industries to move out of the country to avoid taxes, health care plans and good wages for their workers, who, by the way, then buy their products. As we lost population the Anderson Community School Corporation kept building new schools instead of consolidating.
We need fire and police services, and these folks do a great job! However, with all the extra modern equipment and more officers on the beat, Andersonians keep shooting each other and dropping out of school. These things are all economy related. Education and job opportunity help keep violence down.
All the new taxes in the world won’t fix our new reality. We live in a global economy where American workers are expected to compete against slave labor in markets such as China where workers earn a few dollars a day. The growth on the south side of Anderson is a good sign, but it will not fix the real problem.
Until cities have the money they need to quit spending, like the average family has had to do. I have watched Alexandria’s downtown disappear as the jobs dried up. Until we stand up to corporate greed and change poor foreign trade policies we are on a long hard slide into permanent recession. In the meantime taxes must remain stagnant like our wages. I hate to be negative, but we haven’t seen the worst of this and local leaders need to tighten their belts.