I know that National Tax Freedom Day is somewhat randomly calculated, but I think it’s a good exercise to remind us of the cost of government. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear much about its passing yesterday. Are we getting immune to it? According to the Heritage Foundation it was five days later this year due to the fiscal cliff negotiations. The Tax Foundation breaks the number of days to pay each tax into calendar days. That’s a bit sobering too. Hit the “read more” button to see their chart.
As Hoosiers, we can take heart in the fact that we’re only the 25th most taxed State, so our Tax Freedom Day was actually April 13th according to the Star Press. It was hard to celebrate this Saturday when I was still finalizing my 2012 taxes to mail out on the 15th…
I am one of the groggy people you met on the road this morning. My internal clock is harder to reset than the digital clock on my oven. I grumbled yesterday resetting my watch and various clocks, but the fact that my alarm clock and cell phone reset automatically was almost as annoying! How dare they make it seem so easy!
If you want to commiserate with me, maybe we could meet for brunch sometime. By then it will be light out and I will be more civil…
We’re installing some appliances for a client today. The client purchased the appliances at a reputable appliance store. You would think they would include everything necessary to install the appliances, but nope! No range cord.
Now I understand why they don’t come attached as there are sometimes issues with the type of existing outlet. What I don’t understand is why an appliance store would sell you a range that you can’t install… They sell the cords. Wouldn’t you think they would ask? Wouldn’t you think they would try and sell you a cord so you could do the install?
I KNOW they don’t come with cords and I still forget sometimes. And I’m thoroughly tic’d with my supplier when it happens. They shouldn’t forget. I would be much happier knowing that charge up front and receiving what I need to do the work.
I shared some of my rants regarding the changes to the zoning boundary with Jeff Kenney of the Culver Citizen and he suggested that I send him a letter to the editor on the subject. I am a little freer with my writing here in the blog since I know my audience is different, so I wrote a separate Letter to the Editor and cleaned up my prose a bit. Hopefully it will encourage people to get involved and do some of the research themselves. My earlier piece included all of the links and drawings, so I’ve made it easy for anyone to follow my research. What do you think?
PS – If anyone can tell me why I lose my paragraph breaks on text I cut & paste into a post, let me know! Drives me nuts! It looks right in the editor and then loses the spaces between paragraphs when it posts… I guess I’ll go old-school and add indents…
I went home pretty frustrated last night. I had shared my previous post on the Two Mile Zoning Boundary with the Town Council and Plan Commission last week. I am also on the Steering Committee for the Plymouth Comprehensive Plan review and attended that meeting Monday evening. (6:00 until 9:45! Sheesh!) The topic of the Two Mile Zoning Boundary came up and there was a lively discussion. Yesterday I sent the following email to the Town Council and Plan Commission ahead of the Plan Commission meeting last night:
All,
I attended last night’s Plymouth Comprehensive Plan review on behalf of MCEDC. One of the items that Jackie Turner with Ratio Architects had in the draft plan was ceding some extra territorial control back to the County. I questioned why this would ever be considered as the extended territorial control was there to allow the municipality to control its destiny. She replied that if Plymouth was looking at the plan as a 10 year document, then they might want to divest themselves of the burden of supervising areas that weren’t planned for annexation in the next 10 years. I asked why a municipality would EVER want to cede control to the county and shouldn’t our vision be for 50 years, not just 10? I then asked about problems with residential development surrounding industrial areas making expansion difficult, the problem with subdivisions just outside the territorial boundary which used services, but did not pay for them (fire, police, parks, etc.) and and the difficulties of leapfrogging areas that had been developed that resisted annexation to serve new development or other older developments that needed services. This started a rather spirited response from Plymouth departmental staff naming specific instances where this is already a problem.
Ms. Turner agreed with my points for the most part, saying she was just giving that as an option to be considered as part of the comprehensive planning process. She said there still may be areas of no growth where Plymouth might want to consider this, but all the points I made need to be considered before making that decision.
I’m paraphrasing the discussion above, but I double checked it with Brent Martin who was also in attendance. Ralph Booker was there also. One of the big points I think Culver should take from this is that determining the extended territorial boundary is a discussion that should be had as part of the Comprehensive Planning process. There is no reason that we can’t put this off until our planning process is complete.
Kevin
After sending that out yesterday, I had a meeting with the representatives from Houseal Lavigne Associates who were here doing interviews to start our Comprehensive Plan project. I was there representing MCEDC. As part of our discussion, I laid out the scenario of the property swaps to Devin Lavigne and he agreed with me that it probably was not appropriate to give up any control since it was so hard fought to obtain. He also agreed that this should be part of the comprehensive planning process we were just beginning.
At the Plan Commission last night Ralph Booker, Marshall County Plan Director, presented the maps including a calculation of the acreage of the land that was swapped. Ralph Winters, Plan Commission Chairman, called for a vote without audience input and it was passed without discussion. My arguments were not mentioned. Our new planners, sitting in the audience, were not consulted. Opportunity missed. Do you like the Face Palm GIF? That was me last night!
Passing this last night puts it in front of the Town Council for approval. I’m not sure when that will happen or whether the Town Council will buck the Plan Commission on this again.
I know that National Tax Freedom Day is somewhat randomly calculated, but I think it’s a good exercise to remind us of the cost of government. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear much about its passing yesterday. Are we getting immune to it? According to the Heritage Foundation it was five days later this year due to the fiscal cliff negotiations. The Tax Foundation breaks the number of days to pay each tax into calendar days. That’s a bit sobering too. Hit the “read more” button to see their chart.
I am one of the groggy people you met on the road this morning. My internal clock is harder to reset than the digital clock on my oven. I grumbled yesterday resetting my watch and various clocks, but the fact that my alarm clock and cell phone reset automatically was almost as annoying! How dare they make it seem so easy!
