It Ain't the Rates, It's the SPENDING!

Once in a while the Bloomington Pantagraph editorial folks hit one out of the park and this is one of those instances:

Despite your elected officials bragging about keeping your tax rates unchanged or even lowering them, most likely your latest tax bill is larger than your last bill.

That’s because a steady tax rate means little if the assessed value of your property has gone up — and most property in this area has steadily increased in value.

We've harped on this over and over.

If public officials really want credit for being fiscal watchdogs, they should be telling us more about how they are holding the line on spending rather than how they are keeping tax rates down.

Tax rates might be relatively steady, but the levies — the revenue that taxing bodies seek from property taxes — are going up.

And finally . . .

If increased spending is justified, just say so. But public officials shouldn’t repeat the mantra “we haven’t increased your tax rate” unless they give equal billing to what they have done with the levy.

"It's the spending, stupid."