Everyone's Opinion Newsletter

It seems like March was a cantankerous month for county government. There was the controversy of a young woman in the drug court rehabilitation program receiving an abortion. Then we had the county employees disgruntlement over wages and benefits.

Then the one that lit the fuses of a lot of people was the pay increase for attorneys and Helen Schmitt's sizeable raise. It was enough to make a bystander wonder if all this controversy was being intentionally provoked, or county government collectively was suffering from combat fatigue and were intentionally shooting themselves in the foot so they could get out of a war zone. No doubt the sniping will continue.

In April we'll probably see the commissioners raise the taxes on our property to 100% valuation to gain financial elbowroom and of course the school districts will tag along. The commissioners are trying to contain costs but the list of causalities keeps rising and appeasement will be in the spring air. From every middle-sect village and town, reassessment will ring out loud and clear, especially from the Altoona Mirror. If the school districts won't sue, then maybe the city of Altoona will do.

In 1854 Altoona was incorporated as a borough and in 1868 incorporated as a city. The city of Altoona owes its beginnings to the smelting of iron ore and then later to the westward expansion of the railroad across the state. The longevity of a corporate city is dependant upon some natural condition such as a natural harbor, the intersecting of major waterways, large natural mineral deposits, or strategic locations in topography.

For the Pennsylvania railroad to traverse the Appalachian plateau at a reasonable grade the construction of a rail line on the natural topography of the nearby mountains was crucial in the selection of the Altoona area for its future growth. Altoona's incorporation was founded out of a basic commercial interest at this time in history.

As the infrastructure of our highway system improved through the years the reliance on railroads diminished. The commercial retail interests that sprang up around the railroad have slowly died off or moved into the outlying areas of Logan Township and attempts at revitalization have produced mediocre results as the exodus of commercial activity continues, which further complicates the situation for Altoona proper.

In a March 26, 2009 Altoona Mirror article entitled, League projects huge city deficit, ''The Pennsylvania Economy League projects a cumulative deficit of $13.2 million during the next five years for the city, if it continues on its current financial course, due to fundamental problems of Altoona history and state law.'' This article also mentioned that the city's options run from seeking distressed status to reassessment.

The assessed value of property is the city's main revenue source, which has been shrinking over the past 40 yrs. and reassessment would surely exasperate this downward trend. Such recommendations by the Pa. Economy League suggest they are employed more as a political propaganda tool than a credible economic adviser.

It has been advanced by supporters of reassessment that 1/3 of property owners would see an increase in their taxes, 1/3 would see little or no increase, and 1/3 would see a decrease. Who do you think is going to see the increase? It will be the bottom 1/3 that suffers the increase and less able to afford it, and it will be the top 1/3 that can afford an increase but realize a decrease. The city of Altoona already has the highest delinquency rates for property tax payments in the county and reassessment would further aggravate this situation.

Other advocates of reassessment recommend reassessing and overseeing. For at least 40 yrs. and longer, for generations, the people of Pa. have patiently sought for this obscenity to be eliminated. As far as overseeing, they have so confounded the issue with the complexity of administrative law that one would have to be a Rhoades scholar or a Philadelphia lawyer to figure it out and then you would still be liable to be impeached or prosecuted. Get rid of the complexity so they won't be able to hide and play legal games.

The Altoona Mirror itself has a vested interest in advancing reassessment, has openly stated as much and tacitly directs consideration towards this end. The Mirror as a corporate entity must consider the best financial practices concerning its business affairs and coping with taxes would be a top priority. Lets face it, what kind of a tax would they be more favorable towards, a tax on profits or a property tax? Their property taxes would no doubt be significant compared to the average property owner but the Mirror as a business has the ability to make capital improvements in property and equipment then write them off over a period of years on a depreciation schedule, allowing them to maintain the condition of their property. The average property owner does not have this same opportunity. What we are dealing with here is the federal tax code, which has become an obnoxious, obscene monster and should be replaced with a flat tax.

Between the federal tax code and the states methods of taxation, the property owner is left in a most uncivil predicament. The cities wine about blight, right here is at least half the reason for this cancer. From the several states failure to unite against the federal government and force reform, to the counties failure to unite and force real reform within the state itself, the net result has led to a subtle theft of our rights in property. It has been this failure to fully incorporate all citizens in a fair and uniform manner that has led to the cities demise.

You want a stimulus plan? Eliminate the property tax and replace it with the appropriate flat rate income tax with a threshold for those below $24,000 exempted. A farmer knows that he can only take so much from the ground and then he has to replenish it by adding fertilizers or planting a particular crop then turn it back over into the ground. The elimination of the property tax would have this grass roots effect. It would steady industry, promote initiative, and prod ambition; reinvest and re- incorporate the citizen's deservedly owed security in their right of property. The political powers that seem satisfied with a status quo that causes property to deteriorate and be forfeited so it can be stole for chump change, then send you packing off some where down a trail of tears.

Where does slavery or involuntary servitude begin? It begins when the franchise, or the right of property can be taxed. Once your property can be taxed you are held hostage under threat of forfeiture to work to pay the unions, the school districts, their retirement plans, their medical insurance, and etc. while you the property owner in many cases go with out. They make their property, their lives, secure through legalized extortion while rendering yours insecure and give little or naive consideration to the consequences.

They are owed fair compensation but not at the expense of these methods. It grinds the faces of the elderly on fixed incomes, the unemployed, and the disadvantaged into the ground. Who speaks for their tenuous predicament? The taxation of property in itself makes a mockery of the concept of fair and uniform, and any pretended rights to judge or prosecute, civilly, criminally, or administratively become hypocritical. When the right of property is made insecure either by law or bayonet, the consequences are the same.

The act of incorporating means to form a legal corporation or other association capable of acting as an individual, to combine or merge as one body or whole. The corporate body is usually directed at the realization of commercial objectives. It is a paper entity, which creates an artificial person and is not owed civil liberties but has been methodically used to take away liberties. When one comes under the jurisdiction of a corporate body they forfeit some of their liberties for perceived economic benefits.

Madison states, "Where charters of incorporation, even the common ones to towns for the sake of local police, contain clauses implying contracts, and irrevocability, they are liable to objections of equal force. The ordinary limitation on incorporated Societies is a proviso that their laws shall not violate the laws of the land. But how easily may it happen that redress for such violations may not be pursued into effect? How much injury may accrue during the pursuit of redress. And above all how much local injustice and oppression may be committed by laws & regulations, not in strict construction violating any law of the land."

Via the Mirror's article, the Pa. Economy League's consultant Harry Sickler suggests that, since the county commissioners are opposed to reassessment, city council could try to persuade them, or sue to force them. "It takes the commissioners off the hook." It ultimately can be a 'friendly' way to do it, he said. First off, the commissioners are not on a hook but are exercising their duty as representatives of the people and are opposed because a majority of citizens are opposed to the continued taxation of our property.

Secondly, have city council come out into the hinterland and try to persuade we the property owners why our property should be taxed and see how quickly they are forced off our property in a very unfriendly way. Thirdly, since the city of Altoona, a corporate entity, is in such dire distress why should the rest of Blair County be sued into the same distressed status and why should a corporate body be allowed to violate constitutional law and everyone else's right of property?

In Federalist #10 Madison mentioned 'a well constructed union.' Well constructed implies the presence of system, responsibility, accountability, principles, order, and discipline. All these things are missing and the only way to force their reinstatement on government is by making it live and conduct its affairs under the same discipline we must live under, the economy. As Altoona goes, so shall the county, so shall the state and so shall we the people, it will be and has been a slow cancerous theft of property both constitutionally and personally. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior being continued by our government, abide by the principles or be prosecuted by them.

The Freeman

Blair County, PA

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