“We can legally do it – but is a simple majority vote to give your property tax monies to a charity that you otherwise would not actually moral?”
Every year since I’ve been politically active and paying attention, “outside agencies” keep coming to my hamlet to get the townfolk to give them money. No, not the traditional way of door-to-door, by phone, or by snail mail requests. Nope, by petition warrant which means that if a 50% + 1 of your fellow townfolk decide to vote YES come the Second Session (SB2 ballot box voting on the Town budget), your part of your property taxes go to that “charity” that have, in the past proclaimed themselves be part of Government.
Yep, actually happened during a BudComm meeting a few years back – the person trying to persuade a few elected officials (we on the BudComm) to Recommend to our townfolk to spend their property tax monies on a charity. She went on and about how if we didn’t fund her organization, we’d have to radically appropriate more for our State mandated hamlet’s Welfare office.
Sidenote: EVERY town and city has one and we must spend what is needed to meet the needs of the indigent – by State statute. Even if that indigent person boozed and drugged their money away, the town is obligated to help out with food, heat, electric, rent….and yes, I know of such actual examples but I digress for the purpose of this post.
I asked – so, if you are making the claim to be part of our town’s structure, may we all see your books, your next yearly budget, and debate whether or not you’re about to spend our townfolks’ money the way we tell you too? After all, here at the BudComm, we go over and question EVERYTHING – and change their line items as we see fit. That’s what we do. When will you bring that in for a vote?
She left quickly in a huff. Never saw her again.
Look, this is an annual thing for me. In my eyes, forcing someone that you may not know, may not know their financial situation, may not know what charities that they hold in esteem (or not) to GIVE a charity / social organization / outside agency is immoral. How DARE I force another to give to an organization just because *I* voted that EVERYONE must do so because I like that charity’s mission?
I can’t think that way – I just can’t. First off, it let’s that outside agency be lazy – persuade a few politicians and they get money (and sometimes that adds up to 10s of thousands of dollars) just by doing that. Second, who am *I* to force someone to do that? I can’t do that – constitutionally unable to do that (even for charities I actually like!).
And really, is it right, is it moral to mandate that, at the point of losing their property, they must? That their home, at the extreme end, could be lost if it wasn’t paid?
Charity is supposed to be voluntary – not forced. Charity is supposed to be from the heart and not by mere payment of taxes.
But such is how our common language has been degenerated – “I gave at the office” is now also “the Government took it from me”
(/rant)