[LPmeck] LTE Regarding Huntersville Police Station

[Christopher Cole]

Greetings, all,
There is a discussion going on in Huntersville town government  
regarding the need for a new town police station. Our  
most-conservative town commissioner has widely distributed an email  
saying that a property tax increase of 4-5 cents (on a current rate of  
29 cents) would be justified for the project. Below is a  
letter-to-the-editor I have sent to our two town newspapers on the  
matter. I have also emailed copies to our mayor and all five  
commissioners.
Chris

To the editor:
I received the email distributed by our most-conservative Town  
Commissioner, Ken Lucas, and reported in the Citizen, the Herald, and  
the Neighbors section of the Observer, explaining that a property-tax  
increase of 4-5 cents would be justified for building an  
urgently-needed new police department. As Ken mentions, this need has  
been postponed for several years.

I happen to agree that the need for adequate facilities for the police  
department has been postponed for several years. However, I deny that  
the need thereby justifies a ten-fifteen percent increase in the town  
tax rate.

One of the ways that government grows and taxes increase is that  
officials provide for flashy or trendy buildings or programs, while  
postponing legitimate government functions. Then a crisis is declared,  
such that citizens will suffer some unacceptable deprivation unless we  
surrender more rights or income to the plunder of government.The  
school system is notorious for this, building new headquarters for  
expanding bureaucracy, then threatening to fire teachers unless they  
get more money. In Huntersville, it was done by building the Aquatic  
Center and Discovery Place for Kids, neither of which is a legitimate  
function of government, and now threatening our police protection, if  
we don't fork over more taxes.

The town board set its priorities: the Aquatic Center and DPK were  
more important than the police department. It is misleading to say  
that there aren't adequate funds for a new police headquarters. There  
WERE adequate funds, but they were spent instead on bright shiny  
objects, government bling-bling. And now we're stuck.

I expect the town commissioners to man-up, cut out the bling-bling,  
govern according to legitimate government function (refer to the  
Declaration of Independence), and LOWER taxes, not raise them.
Sincerely,

-- 
Chris Cole
Huntersville, NC

"Those who pretend they want to preserve freedom, while they are eager to fix
prices, wage rates, and interest rates at a level different from that of the
market, delude themselves. There is no other alternative to  
totalitarian slavery
than liberty. There is no other planning for freedom and general  
welfare than to
let the market system work. There is no other means to attain full employment,
rising real wage rates, and a high standard of living for the common man than
private initiative and free enterprise."
-Ludwig von Mises
Founder, Austrian School of Economics
March 30, 1945