The Indiana Constitution, more so than the federal Constitution, firmly recognizes our rights. In fact, it says our rights come from "almighty GOD." While readers may assign whatever (or no) deity they wish, the point is that rights come from our humanity. In addition to recognizing our rights, the Indiana Constitution goes in depth into setting up municipal and state wide government.
And that is the primary purpose of these documents. To recognize rights, and to establish how the government is set up. States like California and Texas, which are constantly amending their constitutions, have got it wrong. Our society of millions, with only a small fraction of those spending time on political issues of the day, is not set up for direct democracy. We are a representative democratic-republic, and the law making and administrative crap should be done by elected officials.
And it's that reason why I'm voting "No" on Public Question #1. It's my understanding that property tax caps are already written as state laws. There's no need to clutter our constitution with political issues. If it isn't to correct a serious deficit in the document, or to recognize rights that aren't being recognized, then it shouldn't be made apart of our state constitution.
Monday, October 11, 2010
2 comments:
Please see the Indy Student Blog Policies page for the full policy on blog comments. Verification of comments by typing in a random word is required to prevent spam. Due to recent blog inactivity, comments are now pre-screened to prevent spam advertisement.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with your point, but I'd also add that it's property tax revenue that funds our libraries, schools and IndyGo, among other important public resources.
ReplyDeleteLow property taxes are great but look at how we're shortchanging the community. I own a home. Capping my tax at 1% means I'm paying less than $200 on my house. I may be in the minority but I'm willing to pay more to have good school libraries and mass transit. I'd be willing to pay a lot more.
This is one vote when we can't afford to be selfish or we all suffer. I already voted no on PQ #1. I hope a lot more community minded voters do to.
Amen to that. I'm voting no as well. I studied the Indiana Constitution heavily in law school (with the best ICL professor in the state) and this is an astonishingly bad idea... and it looks like there is little opposition to it.
ReplyDeleteThis referendum is like asking vinyl window salesmen if you should put vinyl windows in your historic mansion. Of course they'll say yes, because each person thinks he/she stands to gain something. But no one is thinking about the consequences.
When, in the future, we realize that property taxes NEED to be raised, there will be virtually no way to fix the resulting mess. We will be like California today -- all because of greed and public ignorance of how our government was designed to work.