{"id":46,"date":"2013-11-19T20:05:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T20:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/j85.01e.mytemp.website\/?p=46"},"modified":"2013-11-19T20:05:15","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T20:05:15","slug":"raise-taxes-because-we-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=46","title":{"rendered":"Raise taxes because WE NEED!"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe Grand Gesture  <\/strong><\/span>                      November 19, 2013<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We need\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dno problem!   We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just raise a few taxes, so says City Director Philip Merry, Jr.  Director Merry says \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m moved by the police situation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  And with that said, Director Merry instructs the City Board to consider a franchise tax and an alcohol tax to come up with \u00c2\u00bd Million to satisfy Chief Lindsey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funding thirst. A tax that will never end.<\/p>\n

Chief Lindsey opined that the city budget for 2014 created slots for 8 new police officers.  Of course, no justification for the 8 new slots given.<\/p>\n

In the grand manner that only a bureaucrat or politician can conjure up, Chief Lindsey allowed that the 8 would only cost $655,000 for salaries & benefits per year, plus an additional $200,000 for pensions per year.  Divide the $855,000 by 8 and the result is $106,875.00 per officer\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6not a bad day\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work. How many private sector citizens bring in that kind of money?  This is a good example of how middleclass citizens are being stiffed by government bunko squads.  Government employees make on average 21.5% more than private sector employees. It is past time to do away with the protection racket.<\/p>\n

The police budget for the years 2010-11-12 was $15.2 million.   The budget for 2013 is $16.9 million for an increase of $1.7 million over the past 3 years.  Again, no justification for the $1.7 million egregious increase, particularly at a time when our city is losing jobs. <\/p>\n

The phrase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153we need\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/strong><\/span> became the battle cry for bureaucrats and politicians decades ago, and when the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153we need\u00e2\u20ac\u009d flag went up politicians & bureaucrats jumped to attention, as is the case with Director Phillip Merry and his Grand Gesture\u00e2\u20ac\u201dLet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Raise Taxes!<\/strong><\/span>
\nLet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s introduce a much more honorable battle cry \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Make do with less!, and do it now\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. <\/p>\n

Speaking of the Fort Smith city police, are they receiving any of their training from the Dept. of Homeland Security and if so, why?  Taking this thought a little further down the road, police and sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s departments receiving military hardware is absolutely not needed and is promoting a paramilitary attitude toward police work.<\/p>\n

Joe McCutchen
\nFort Smith
\narkansasfreedom.net  <\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Grand Gesture                        November 19, 2013 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We need\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dno problem!   We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just raise a few taxes, so says City Director Philip Merry, Jr.  Director Merry says \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m moved by the police situation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  And with that said, Director Merry instructs the City Board to consider a franchise tax and an alcohol tax … Continue reading Raise taxes because WE NEED!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,32,9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-city-government-offenses","category-city-politics","category-forced-redistribution","category-police-state"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}