An Inconvenient Invention (HT NewsBusters, noting lack of Old Media interest)?
A US company is taking plastics recycling to another level – turning them back into the oil they were made from, and gas.
All that is needed, claims Global Resource Corporation (GRC), is a finely tuned microwave and – hey presto! – a mix of materials that were made from oil can be reduced back to oil and combustible gas (and a few leftovers).
That “we’re running out of oil” argument, already woefully weak, gets ever weaker.
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A subscription-only Wall Street Journal editorial notes a Florida tax revolt, the consequences of out-of-control property taxes tied to home values, and a tax-relief measure that will be voted on statewide:
….. Governor Charlie Crist recently signed a $32 billion property tax relief plan — the biggest tax cut in Florida history, and reminiscent of California’s famous Proposition 13 tax cut initiative 29 years ago.
Florida family incomes have risen by a healthy 37% since 2001, but average property tax bills have climbed by 83%. In some communities, such as Boynton Beach, average property tax bills have tripled in seven years. Politicians tell of town hall meetings where angry constituents announce they are literally being taxed out of their homes. United Van Lines reports that, for the first time in many years, more American homeowners packed up and left Florida than arrived in 2006.
….. The catch is that this must be approved by 60% of the voters in a January 2008 ballot referendum. And already the liberal interests that feast on local spending — government employee unions, contractors and local politicians — are predicting Armageddon for schools and city services if the tax cuts are enacted. House Speaker Marco Rubio, who has led the charge for property tax relief, says local governments have already spent $24 million of taxpayer money to lobby against the initiative.
With many municipal budgets having doubled in size over the past eight years, many Floridians are unimpressed with these sudden exclamations of empty city wallets. Taxpayer groups point to numerous examples of flush spending by cities and counties in recent years, including $32 million for a new municipal golf course in Palm Beach — a county that already has 160 courses.
Far from being over, the property tax fight in Florida is just heating up. That’s also true in at least a dozen other states …..
Local pols throughout the country, when presented with tax windfalls, will continue to do what they’ve almost invariably done. They’ll spend the money, unless taxpayers rein them in.
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A different Wall Street Journal op-ed from last week by executives of The Yankee Institute notes that Connecticut is also in on the tax action, in this case beating back misguided increases proposed by Governor Jodi Rell (blogged on here back in February). Given the political makeup of the state and its legislature, it looked like there would be no stopping the increases. Surprise — It didn’t happen, and perhaps has larger implications:
(The governor) proposed hiking the state’s income tax by 10% (to 5.5% from 5%) to raise money for Hartford and other city school districts. And one idea kicking around the legislature was to create a new, higher tax bracket for “the wealthy.” In this case, a 6.95% income tax on top income earners (something those commuters to New York City would probably love). The government’s apparently limitless appetite for higher taxes comes at a time when the rainy day fund is topped out and the state is enjoying a $900 million surplus.
….. By the end of May, two months into our (anti-tax) campaign, Ms. Rell backed away from her own tax hike. In early June, the legislative session ended without an agreement on the state’s budget. A special negotiating session between Gov. Rell and legislators has just ended, and it contains no increase in the state’s income tax — something thought impossible just months ago.
Our experience challenges a widely held belief that it is difficult to have a political impact by taking a serious, complex argument to the general public. By combining the old sound-bite media of billboards and posters with a sophisticated Web site, the Yankee Institute did precisely that — and for a fraction of what it would cost to buy broadcast time.
The most interesting assumption we tested with our campaign, however, is the notion that the Northeast is hopelessly and (with the exception of New Hampshire) solidly liberal. What we’re finding is that even rank-and-file Democrats aren’t happy to pay more to get less in government services. Given a choice between dumping more money into a failing public school system or enacting cost-effective reforms like charter schools and merit pay for teachers, voters aren’t likely to throw good money after bad.
This article chronicling what happened notes that Governor Rell totally reversed field on income-tax increases, and even vetoed a budget in early June that contained them.
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A horrid example of voting-rights abuse – in black-ON-white. John Fund also notes how surveyed Americans feel about voter-ID laws:
Despite abundant evidence that protective measures such as photo ID and tighter controls on absentee ballots aren’t designed to suppress voter turnout, the civil rights establishment continues to resist against any effort to improve ballot integrity. Yet as former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young has noted, showing ID is a daily fact of life in America now, and getting such IDs in the hands of poor people would help them enter the mainstream of American life. A poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News last year found Americans backing a photo ID law by 80% to 7%, with two-thirds support among both blacks and Hispanics.
