Archive for the ‘Contemporary Issues’ Category

409. The Fabric Of Life

I recently dreamed that two older women suddenly materialized in front of me.  Their appearance was as odd as their entrance, and I knew they were some sort of mystical beings.  One said to the other “we have to kill him (me) this time.”  Then a third woman appeared who argued for sparing me.  It wasn’t hard to figure out these were the mythical Fates, three sisters who determine what happens in each of our lives.

Unable to decide what to do, they turned to their mother.  An older women then appeared (she wore very thick glasses, perhaps to help her see deeply into things).  She introduced herself in a cheery voice as “Elaina, the Twilling…”  Unfortunately, I can’t remember the word that came after “twilling,” but it started with “tw” also and seemed to describe her occupation.  They then wandered off, caught up in an intense discussion of whether I should live or die.

I don’t like the implications of this dream – it suggests my future is currently in doubt.  Dreams have long been regarded as a source of hidden knowledge; traditionally they were seen as messages from God, but today those messages are seen as arising from one’s own unconscious.  Either way, though, what can I do?  My future lies (symbolically, at least) with the Fates and their mother; only time will tell what they decide.

While we’ve all heard of the three fates, I, at least, had never heard of their mother.  And what does the word “twilling” mean?  Turns out it’s from an Old English word that means weaving cloth with parallel ridges (like corduroy).

This reference to weaving provokes more thought – do our lives, our destinies, often run parallel to one another’s?  Could it mean, perhaps, that the fabric of life, woven with the threads of everyone’s destiny, consists of ridges that we all must overcome?

Whether that’s what my dream alluded to or not, that would seem to describe the texture of fate’s fabric – ridged with challenges that are traversed only to encounter another and then another.  I can’t help but think this metaphor applies to many lives right now – the fate of thousands of Nebraskans and Iowans has run into a morass of ridges presented by the recent flooding.  Like a herd of buffalo driven over a cliff by our Native American predecessors, people’s lives have run in parallel – one beside another – into an abyss of suffering and loss.

And yet there the lives of many more people converged – the outpouring of assistance to flood victims has been phenomenal.  My wife Lori and I set up a donation bowl at the recent Danielle Anderson concert, and when we took the money to the Methodist church in St. Edward, the ladies working there teared up a little while describing how the church sanctuary had recently been filled to the ceiling with donated food, clothing and cleaning supplies.  Most items were gone by then, but these ladies will be there to give and receive until every need is met.  The same thing is going on in community after community where family, friends, neighbors and total strangers have all converged to help those in need.

Sooner or later the Fates cut the thread of everyone’s life and the tapestry twilled from that thread abruptly ends.  But so long as our willingness to help one another remains strong – a quality rural communities seem destined to possess – this area’s fabric of life will endure no matter what the Fates decide our lot should be.

407. Property Tax Relief

Nebraska’s high property taxes are a hot issue right now, and State Sen. Tom Briese of Albion is a leader in efforts to provide relief.  Property taxes are a vestige of the days when most people were farmers.  Owning land implied an income-generating ability, and when the vast majority of income came from farms it made sense to fund governments from them.  But today, when farm owners are in the minority and commodity prices are ridiculously low, this needs to be rethought.

The only “fair” tax is income tax because it’s based on the ability to pay, but since everybody is acutely aware of paying it (unlike sales and excise taxes), everybody hates it.  So for obvious political reasons, income taxes are the last taxes to be raised.

It’s really no wonder that since farmers and ranchers are now a minority – and thus have limited power at the ballot box – there’s been a steady increase in property taxes.  Property tax revenue in Nebraska roughly equals all other taxes combined. And because Nebraska relies on property taxes for the vast majority of its public education funding, efforts to cut these taxes again and again run into a wall.  We simply can’t pare educational spending down enough to result in meaningful tax relief.  But with spending on public education in Nebraska adding up to around $4 billion each year, there’s seemingly no way to offer a substantial increase in state funding to provide property tax relief (Nebraska’s overall state budget runs around $4.4 billion).  Income taxes and/or sales taxes would have to be raised substantially to provide a balanced sales, income and property tax dependency.

And finally our state senators are beginning to recognize this.  Sen. Briese has introduced LB 314, a bill that would be “revenue neutral,” meaning that while some taxes would go up so that property taxes could go down, overall taxation should remain the same.  Only now the burden of financing our schools would be more evenly distributed.

Raising state sales tax half a percent, reinstating sales tax on items like pop and candy, collecting online sales tax, and raising excise taxes are all part of this process.  As is a previously-taboo tweak of our income tax system – the adoption of a progressive income tax, which would impose a higher tax rate upon higher earners.  Currently Nebraskans earning more than $30,420 are in the same income tax bracket as billionaires like Warren Buffet.

Charging the rich more in taxes has long been the case at the federal level (under President Eisenhower top earners were effectively taxed at over 50%).  But in Nebraska that’s not the case.

Naturally, there’s a lot of opposition to this from the rich.  Governor Ricketts’ father, billionaire TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, says this would be punishing people for “working hard.”  But I have to wonder, who works harder than Nebraska’s farmers and ranchers?

We also hear a lot about the need to give tax breaks to businesses as “incentives” to locate and/or remain here.  But agriculture is Nebraska’s biggest business – why have we saddled it with the majority of Nebraska’s tax burden?

As a landowner, I pay about 5 times as much in property taxes as I do in state income taxes.  And while I hate to see my income taxes go up, meaningful property tax relief would result in a net tax reduction for all landowners – and without endangering funding for public education.  So here’s hoping that Sen. Briese’s bill gets the support it needs to not only pass, but to override our uber-wealthy governor’s inevitable veto.