Property Taxes - about this time every year, communities must set a new property tax rate(s).

Tom Hasen (Hazen Paper) has brought our attention to the plight of businesses in our area. Taxes are a cost of doing business, and when they are increased, the additional cost affects the profitability of that business and can ultimately cause the business to fail - or to move to another state or even to another country. The result here is lost jobs, and a local economy that is even less able to pay for the cost of government services.

Robert Gilbert (Dowd & Sons) has rightly described what must be done - increase revenue (with the addition of new or expanded businesses) and reduce cost - by making local government more efficient. Note that this lower cost will benefit business and make it more likely that new jobs will be created. The result - a stronger local economy and a win-win situation that benefits us all.

The alternative is the same old dilemma before the city councils - do they raise the business tax rate disproportionately to the residential tax rate. Unfortunately this is a win-loose situation, since the result works like a seesaw. For example - if the residential rate is held down, then the business rate must increase disproportionately. Only when both tax rates are held in check do we have a win-win situation.