The New Hampshire constitution is unique. It took to heart, literally, language in the Declaration of Independence. Article 10 gives the people a right to dissolve the government. A town in Ohio just did that.
Amelia, Ohio, a town of 5000, decided that their local government was not operating in their best interests, and as such, should be abolished — a right defined in the earliest days of the American Republic.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Why? The taxes were too damn high.
The brouhaha began when the city council voted to impose a 1% income tax on residents without seeking their input on the matter. … A 1% tax might seem like small potatoes, but there is more context that should be understood. Residents of the city already pay about $1,400 annually in state income taxes. They cough up about $780 each year in-state sales tax and $130 in local sales tax. All of this is washed down with a cold glass of property taxes that average about $3,300 per year. The new tax would have added a little over $600 each year.
In light of these numbers, it’s not hard to see why the residents of Amelia would lose their patience.
The town voted to dissolve the local government. No government, no tax.
Are there complications? Yes, and no.
Residents who live on one side of Main Street will belong to one township, and their neighbors across the street to another.
Whether that ends up working out any better them remains to be seen, but Amelia, Ohio is no more. The people have spoken.
| RS
