COMMENTARY: How the anti-tax crowd is killing a city...

If you travel far enough on Oklahoma City’s Northwest Expressway, past the restaurants, the banks, and the struggling strip malls, you’ll eventually wind up in Warr Acres.

Warr Acres — a short hop away from Bethany — is a nice, sleepy little community. It’s a good place to raise a family.

And, it really doesn’t take long to get there, either.

Oh, you’ll know you’ve arrived when you see those stupid signs informing you about how you’ve entered Oklahoma’s version of low-tax Nirvana.

These signs — large ones — sit along side the road and proudly inform drivers they are now in the hamlet which offers the area’s lowest sales tax rate, and how, if you dare to travel out of this glorious little community, you’ll be faced with, God forbid, higher taxes.

Of course, there’s a little more to the story.

And it’s a story that I doubt the Warr Acres city council or the city’s mayor, Marietta Tardibono, will spend much time promoting.

But for you folks that follow city government, and for the loyal readers of this column, here’s the 411: Warr Acres is close to going belly up.

Yep, they ain’t got no money.

None. They are doing good to keep the lights on; their budget is dismal and they can barely pay for municipal services.

Why?

The answer is simple: Because they have no tax base.

“And why is that?” You ask.

That answer, too, is simple: Warr Acres has spent so much time touting the anti-tax line, anti-government line they have their tax base artificially low.

And chickens, my grandfather used to say, come home to roost.

Funny think about life in the U.S., those prices for everything from gasoline to stamps keep increasing.

But with their “low tax-no tax” sales line, Warr Acres officials are discovering that now, they can’t keep up.

Granted, the city — on the verge of falling apart — recently voted to increase their tax rate.

But it may a classic example of too little, too late.

Don’t believe me?

Here’s the situation from the mayor’s own pen:

“These last six months have been trying to say the least,” Tardibono said, during her state of the city speech in February. “Many are calling upon this new legislature to do something on a state level to help us out. Our representatives will be working this session to pass legislation which could be our saving grace.”

That’s interesting.

Warr Acres, the community that touts itself the area’s low-tax kingdom, wants the rest of us to help out. They want state lawmakers to shift some state law or some state money their way; they would like the rest of the state to help them pay for services they can’t (or won’t) pay for themselves.

Swell.

Tardibono continues, talking about how the city has reduced its staff from “…87 employees in 2003 to 64 which I consider to be a skeleton crew.”

Then she adds, the city “would have been in serious trouble, had not the voters approved the 1-cent sales tax.”

Okay, so you get the picture. Here’s this little town that bitched and moaned about taxes so much that it became their marketing theme.

Only it didn’t work.

Businesses and shoppers didn’t flood the plot that is Warr Acres. There was no mammoth influx of spending capital to keep the city’s budget in the black.

The signs didn’t work.

And, because the taxes they do assess have not kept pace with inflation, they’ve come to the point where they’ve almost run out of money – as in, struggling to keep the pay for municipal services.

So the Warr Acres city council convinces voters of the need for a sales tax increase and then sends a lobbyist to the Legislature to twist arms and plead for state revenue because they are still struggling.

Oh yeah, did I mention the signs?

Here’s the deal: If we, as Americans, are going to live in America, then we’re going to have to tax ourselves enough to cover governmental services. If you want fire, police, schools, roads, water, sewer, libraries and other municipal services, they you’re going to have to help pay for them.

There is no other way to do it.

And it’s real damn sanctimonious to put up signs that talk about how your town is some little low-tax oasis, then when money gets tight, you town expects the rest of us to bail you out.

Funny thing, those roads going into and out of Warr Acres are paid for by the other municipalities in the area which are in the “high tax” part of the city.

But I don’t hear any complaints about that.

Shoot, I don’t like paying taxes. I’d rather keep every cent of my money.

But that ain’t going to happen. So what do we do?

Try this: Elect intelligent, progressive, honest people to government. Then instruct them to hire the same type of governmental staff.

After that, set a reasonable, solid tax system in place that will cover the cost of services, recruit new businesses and spent a good portion of your money a quality educational system.

The keep the public informed and make sure they know what you’re doing every step of the way.

Sound familiar?

Well, that’s the recipe city officials use in Moore.

Here, you don’t have to look hard to see a dynamic, growing, progressive city with solid, top-flight leadership.

Take a look around you. Voters passed a temporary tax increase to fund public safety improvements. The city has the necessary revenue to keep police on the streets and water in the pipes.

And all that’s happening while Moore’s growing and expanding by leaps and bounds.

But my favorite part of this little tale is this: Instead of those stupid, moronic warning us of “higher taxes ahead” signs, we’ve got a water tower with Toby Keith’s name on it.

I love it.

Because in Moore, they understand that taxes are necessary and our leaders use those funds wisely.

COMMENTARY: Sine Die, Oklahoma

Like it does every year, the Oklahoma Legislature will adjourn sine die (Latin for “we’re outta’ here) this Friday at 5 p.m.

And by 5:03 that evening, all 148 members of the House and Senate will be headed back to their respective home towns so they can talk about just how much good or bad they did for the state.

This, of course, works as a preamble to the next legislative cycle and the 2008 elections.

Get ready.

Because while you might actually hear some facts about what happened this year at 23rd and Lincoln, you’ll also hear lots of crapola.

Seriously, lawmakers can’t help it; shoveling BS is a requirement to hold public office.

Anyway, first you’ll probably hear how the economy is stable. And yes, that’s truthful. State revenue is actually up and our constitutional reserve fund — also known as the ‘rainy day’ fund — will be filled to the maximum.

Currently the fund has about $495 million; with another $75.9 million expected to be deposited in 2007.

So far, so good.

But don’t let the boys and girls at the capitol tell you how oil and gas (especially natural gas) is growing our economy by leaps and bounds.

The fact is oil and gas production taxes generated about $505 million for the first 10 months of 2007. That may sound impressive, but in reality it’s also about $87.8 million below the prior year’s revenue.

For too long, Oklahomans have been mislead by oil industry apologists who want us to believe that their industry is our state’s only hope of survival.

Wrong.

The facts paint a different picture.

The two biggest components of our state’s economy are income taxes and sales taxes.

Income taxes have generated about $2.32 billion for state government, with personal income tax accounting for a whopping $1.95 billion.

Sales tax added $1.27 billion to the public checkbook.

So what does this mean?

It means that you, my friend, are the chief component of the Oklahoma economy — the humble Oklahoma taxpayer.

Everytime you go to the store, buy a pair of shoes or grab a burger, you’re the one contributing; doing the heaving lifting.

You generate almost four times more revenue than the oil industry.

You generate almost three times more than the agricultural industry.

You pay the bills.

And while the money for state government comes from each and every Oklahoman, only about half of you (and we’re talking about those who are eligible) bother to tell our state’s elected representatives just how, exactly, you want those funds spent.

In reality it’s not the legislature’s fault; they’re going to behave like a kid with a credit card if you don’t give them some direction. And believe me, the less you pay attention, the worse they behave.

So congratulations on doing your part for keeping the ship of state sailing.

But please, if you’re going to give them several billion dollars to play with, then please get involved in where they spend your money.

And to those of you who think for yourselves, take what you hear from most state lawmakers with a grain of salt, and actually pay attention and vote, please move ahead to the front of the boat.

The rest of you do not pass Go.

You’ll need to brush up on our civics and American democracy classes.

Otherwise the government reflects only half of us. And everyone ought to get the chance to play.