Last Chance for a Tax Revolt in Dayton

There’s a long, patriotic history of tax revolts in America. The Boston Tea Party is the most famous. The Whiskey Rebellion occurred during George Washington’s presidency after big whiskey producers in the east conspired with Alexander Hamilton to tax the whiskey produced by small farmers in the west out of existence. History books teach Washington and Hamilton crushed the rebellion, but few note the farmers ultimately won. They never paid the tax, then Thomas Jefferson repealed it.

Doug French writes of tax revolts during the Great Depression, “History shows that people get angry when you kick them while they are down. During the last great depression there were tax strikes. Property owners created over 1,000 different taxpayer leagues around the country, ‘which voiced outrage over what were perceived as needless government expenditures in a time of severe economic hardship.’”

Few Americans have been kicked more when they’re down than Daytonians. Ohio and Dayton taxes transformed Dayton from the world’s leading center for innovation into one of the top ten fastest dying cities in the country. Local rulers were angry about the Forbes article, but only because it told the truth. In 1960, Dayton’s population was 262,332. In 2010, it was 141,527. It declined every decade in between. That kind of devastating decline is common in communist countries, but shouldn’t happen in America. Just as the burden of government caused the decline in communist countries, it caused the decline in Dayton too. Because of high taxes in Ohio and Dayton, it’s more profitable to do business elsewhere.

No honest person disputes this. Politicians admit they lure businesses into their districts by offering tax incentives. It’s no secret that lower taxes attract investment, and Dayton sorely needs investment. The reason Fuyao almost didn’t come to Moraine was the burden of taxes. The state and city had to offer significant tax reductions to attract Fuyao to what otherwise was the perfect location.

Even communists acknowledge this. Yahoo News reports, “Cuba is proposing a new Cuban foreign investment law that would cut the profits tax in half to 15 percent and exempt most investors from paying it for at least eight years, official media said on Wednesday.” If Dayton’s rulers cut taxes in half today, Dayton’s 50 year decline would immediately reverse and transform into economic growth and job creation. That’s what everybody, officially, wants.

But Dayton’s greedy rulers will never allow that. Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The Dayton Daily News documents Dayton’s insanity, “Dayton’s income tax rate has been 2.25 percent since 1984. The first 1.75 percent is permanent, but the final 0.5 percent requires periodic approval, which voters have overwhelmingly given in 1990, 1994, 2000 and 2006.” Same tax rate; same decline. Dayton’s rulers were supposed to cut spending to match that permanent income. That was a lie. Dayton’s greedy rulers never intended this tax to disappear. That’s why Mayor Whaley and her ruling cabal are pushing for that 0.5 income tax to become permanent on May 6. This is voters’ last chance to stop the tax insanity that’s destroying Dayton.

Greed puts Whaley’s machine left of Cuba’s communists. Political machines push for tax hikes in low turnout elections because few people vote. Whaley won the mayoral runoff election last May with only 4865 votes. Even the DDN acknowledges this scandal, “Voter turnout was dismal. Despite high-profile candidates and television ads and numerous mailings, only 9,869 people voted in a city of 141,000. That’s fewer than the number that voted on the income tax issue in Beavercreek, a city of 45,000.” Dayton’s looters earned voters’ contempt, but low turnout this election will benefit them. They hope for low turnout so they can keep partying on dough stolen from taxpayers.

Whaley’s machine pulled out all the stops to pass this tax. All the socialists support it. WHIO provided a free propaganda special. The Dayton Chamber of Commerce supports the tax because higher taxes protect big businesses from smaller competitors. The ballot language doesn’t mention the tax will become permanent. Dayton’s rulers hope most voters won’t know. Plus, workers who live outside the city can’t vote. That’s taxation without representation. America’s Founding Fathers fought a revolution against that.

Every year, tax-feeders tell taxpayers they must sacrifice, supposedly for the common good, but Orwell understood political language is designed to make lies sound like truth. When tax-feeders use the term “common good”, they mean their personal bank accounts. Only parasites benefit from legally robbing taxpayers.

This is the last chance to stop the insanity, reverse Dayton’s decline, and start rebuilding Dayton into a great, productive city like it once was. The common good is served by having the common people keep more of their hard-earned money and making the tax-feeders sacrifice for once. As even Cuba’s rulers admit, if voters reject this tax, the economy in Dayton will improve. A small improvement because it’s a small tax cut, but great transformations have to start with a first step.