Is this a nightmare, or are my two colleagues on the county commission about to raise taxes on home sales in the worst economy since the Great Depression? I hope this is a just dream — and a very bad one at that for working families in Lucas County — but after sitting through two hearings on the issue, I’m pretty sure this is reality.

Led by Commissioner Pete Gerken, a proposal is on the table to raise the conveyance tax for all Lucas County residents. This is a tax that we all must pay when selling our home, business or any real estate in the county.

For example, if the Gerken tax passes, the average home seller in Lucas County will have to write an extra check for $120 at the time of sale, in addition to any other closing costs. Yes, that’s a substantial tax hike on working families and seniors in this terrible economy. You can see how I could mistake this for a bad dream.

I imagine you’re reading this and thinking, “I won’t have an extra $120 laying around when I sell my home, especially since it’s likely that my home has lost significant value over the past couple years.” If you are a parent, I’m sure you could think of a lot of ways to better spend that $120, like paying for groceries or clothes for the kids. And I bet if you are senior citizen, living on a fixed income, you probably could spend that money on prescription drugs or Christmas gifts for the grandkids. But alas, under this nightmare scenario, your tax dollars (totaling around $1 million per year) will go directly to the Lucas County Improvement Corporation (LCIC).

Remember the LCIC? It’s the “economic development” agency whose director resigned last year two hours before he was to be fired for funneling a no-bid contract to a political crony of Commissioner Gerken. It’s the economic development agency with no accountability standards, and little results in terms of jobs —as our rising local unemployment numbers continue to well document. And it’s the organization that still is run by a board of 20 politicians. See how I could believe this is all a bad dream for Lucas County?

We all want jobs and economic development. We all want to see the public sector play a role in turning our economy around. But before we raise taxes on working families and seniors trying to sell their homes in the worst economy since the Depression, let’s take a step back. Wouldn’t it make more sense to see some results out of LCIC first, and wait a while for the economy to improve, before we consider writing a check, with no strings attached, for $1 million of taxpayer money?

I doubt there is a trained economist on either side of the aisle who would support this across-the-board tax increase on intellectual grounds in our current economic state. And I doubt there are many regular folks out there who could support this tax based on plain common sense.

However, there are some big wigs out there who support this tax hike, and don’t mind throwing your money around in their boardrooms and backrooms. $120 is just another steak dinner on an expense account for them. In fact, this “good ol’ boys network” may publicly blast me in response to speaking out on this, and standing up for the average Joe. But I won’t back down on this one. I’m sick and tired of reliving these bad dreams in Government Center, while our community continues to lose jobs, investment and hope.  Enough is enough … let’s wake up, Toledo!

Ben Konop is a Lucas County Commissioner. Contact him at bkonop@co.lucas.oh.us or (419)-213-2133.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Guest Column, Opinion.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.