TAXES & LIES, TAXES & LIES, TAXES & LIES, TAXES & LIES

A tax is a tax irrespective of what it is called or how it is packaged.
OBSERVE:  Grants, guaranteed loans, funding, investment, public/private partnerships, fees, assistance, incentives, Agenda 21 e.g. Quality of Place, New Market Tax Credits, ad infinitum.

OBSERVE:  Fort Smith city government, UAFS Chancellor Paul Beran, Fort Smith Public School system,
the Arkansas Highway & Transportation System.
CONSIDER:  The numerous taxes the aforementioned are proposing under the banner of “private” endeavors but in reality are nothing of the kind, in addition to outright government theft.

1.    The 1% Prepared Food Tax.  How many flip-flops have the Board of Directors, Ray Gosack & Claude Legris made since the outset of a forced 1% (could go up to 3%) tax without citizen approval?  Initially the tax not only would accommodate the Convention Center but would also  subsidize Legris’ Opportunity Fund and a host of non-governmental activities.  The Terrible Four, now five (including the preacher) have since scaled back their plans for increasing the tentacles of government and inside trading, so they say. Is trust a government commodity? Certainly not. Recently the city has proposed on numerous occasions to diversify the 1% sales tax dedicated to streets & sewer to other venues, along with a host of other curious involvements.

Today’s front page story Times Record titled “Public: Can We Trust Food Tax”.   The answer is an unequivocal NO!   Here’s why:  Here’s what the smarmy Claude Legris had to say regarding the long term use of the revenue generated by the proposed 1% prepared food tax.  Legris, Executive Director of Fort Smith Convention & Visitors Bureau, confessed “future members of the A & P can’t be prevented from diverting revenue from the sales tax into other projects”.

2.    The proposed Marshall’s Museum:  Billed as a private endeavor…a lie.  City funds have and are presently being disbursed to any number of panhandling employees in the hundreds of thousands, in addition to a Museum Statue.

3.     UAFS Chancellor Paul Beran:
a.    Has proposed the creation of a school at the old Mallalieu church site and states it will be privately funded…a lie.
b.    The rebirth & renamed former Entrepreneurial school, now to be called “The Innovation & Entrepreneurial Center”.  Beran claims his proposed center will be privately funded…a lie. What is Beran’s authority for the two outlandish and duplicitous schemes? A bureaucrat teaching entrepreneurship is the mirror image of Obama’s “Job Creation Bill”.

4.    Riverfront development: Citizen taxpayers have long subsidized the remaking of Garrison Ave.  Federal outlays go routinely to Fort Smith insiders for rehabbing their various properties…include HUD in taxpayer rape.  Regarding the riverfront, District Commission member Richard Griffin said that he and others could be eligible for assistance, i.e. taxpayer money which frankly the feds do not have.  Griffin is no doubt heavily involved in New Market Tax credits in the building of his new Garrison Ave. complex.  It would be particularly pleasing if Griffin would use his own & his investors’ money rather than taxpayers. 

5.    State Senator Jake C. Files in the last legislative session put through a legislatively–referred state statute. The bond oriented statute would be paid off by local tax revenues that would be generated by the development.  Seems to be a very murky statute sponsored by realtors and very little information has been forthcoming regarding the benefits to realtors and/or developers. What’s the real hook?

6.    The Fort Smith school system and vote buying. Barak Obama, calling it a “stimulus” awarded $90 million printed out of thin air to Arkansas school teachers, bus drivers & ancillary help.   Fort Smith citizen taxpayers chipped in $2,646, 072 to massage city teachers.  Did you see any media coverage of this?  Of course not. Compounding this vote scheme, there are over 4,000 public employees, mostly school teachers double-dipping—retired and going back to the same job.  In this regard it is suggested you determine how many government employees, past and present, are in the Arkansas state legislature.  Not smart to vote for any government oriented candidate. The name of their game is expansion and self-service.

7.    The Arkansas Highway & Transportation Dept….comes the plea from state politicians and bureaucrats to vote yes and give this department $575 million in new debt all at one time to be laid on the backs of the Arkansas taxpayers.  Highway Directors build new roads in their hometowns and maintenance of state highways is disregarded.  The Highway Commission is taking money from gasoline taxes and giving it to private banks and state entities that already have their own taxpayer-funded budget for non-highway uses. Why is the state Highway Dept funded by fuel taxes, diverting highway funds to recreational trails?—Agenda 21. The state of Arkansas is the nation’s 12th in highway miles due to mass paving in non-congested areas.

Do Fort Smith citizens have the savvy to understand what the self-serving, parasitic bureaucrats and politicians of our town are proposing?  Probably not.

Conclusion:  Citizens understand the Makers are enemies of government and governments have no problem driving us into the turf.  They cheat, steal, manipulate and regulate us into captivity. If we are to survive in any area we must out of necessity drive the self-serving parasites out of our economic and political lives.

VOTE NO!

Joe McCutchen
arkansasfreedom.net />
www.fortsmithtruth.com