Property tax: Something's got to give

1/28/2005

Last month I received my first-half property tax bill for 2005. It contained a substantial increase over last year. Specifically, it contained a $120.54 increase, which works out to a 17 percent property tax hike.

That's a pretty stiff hit, but that's not the end. When I looked over my tax bills for the previous five years, they just keep going up and up and up!

When I consider the fact that my property taxes have gone up $638.40 since 2000, and my taxes were $1042.56 at the beginning of 2000, those figures work out to an overall increase of 61 percent over five years. That is an annual average of 12.2 percent per year.

Since the government says inflation isn't anywhere near that high, what is making all of these increases necessary? Why do they keep putting tax increase after tax increase on the ballots? Why do we keep voting for them? Why do so many assistance programs need so much more money than ever before? Why can't the city balance its budget? Has your personal income gone up that much in the last five years? I know mine hasn't.

Something has to give. I hope it ceases to be taxpayers. Please stop voting for every tax increase that comes down the road.

Karl I. Petersen

Clover Lane

The Jan. 24 editorial, "You gotta give to get," which stated that Cintas corporate founder and chairman Richard T. Farmer is the "subject of an investigation" was incorrect.

The Blade's editorial, gleaned from political articles in other newspapers, attempted to create a link between Mr. Farmer's personal donations to political parties and an unrelated 20-year effort to finalize regulations regarding the handling of common shop towels at industrial laundries. The proposed rule would have little effect on Cintas, given that shop towels comprise a small fraction of our laundry business - plus the fact that the proposed rule only codifies at the federal level what Cintas and other companies already do through existing state guidelines.

While political interests have questioned EPA's lengthy rule-making process and the role that trade groups have in commenting on proposed regulations, such queries have not made Mr. Farmer the personal "subject of an investigation" as erroneously stated in The Blade.

Pamela J. Lowe

Vice President,

Corporate Communications

Cintas Corp.

Cincinnati

I read with great interest the amount of sick time paid out by Sheriff Telb. Obviously, I chose to work for the wrong place. I retired from the University of Toledo in 1992 with more than 2,300 hours of accumulated sick time; I got paid for 200!

Sandy Flick

Rose Acres Drive