Sunday, October 6, 2013

"No Gravy Please"

                                                       

Great Society devotees, and transplanted California liberals woke up this morning, poured themselves a cup of coffee, opened the morning paper...and promptly had a heart attack!

This morning's Arizona Republic is reporting that the Phoenix suburban community of Gilbert, Arizona is getting ready to tell the feds that they no longer want $800,000 dollars in annual federal block grants.
Not suprrising, Gilbert will be the only municipality to ever refuse the federal "gravy".  Now, for those of you unfamiliar with federal block grants, let me explain it this way; for every dollar the feds assess us in taxes, they generously flip a penny or two of that money back to the cities and states...but only if you use it the way they tell you to use it.

The overlords in Washington have been sending Gilbert $800,000 a year to be used for services for the poor and for building low cost housing.

And Gilbert has been taking that money through the years and used it as directed.  They built some low cost housing, fed the homeless, leased space for homeless shelters and sent out a quarter million meals to homebound seniors.  

So why did Gilbert refuse the money this year?  Well, the "public" response was that the federal government is essentially bankrupt and they didn't want to be part of a program that contributes to the country's demise.  Gilbert also asserts that their own community already has many programs in place to help the homeless and seniors and they manage their own funds more efficiently without federal red tape.

The liberal "47 percenters" were aghast!  "Damn Tea Baggers!", they cried.  "Ya gotta be crazy not to take free money!", they lamented.

Well, I am taking the Gilbert folks on their word.  The town is something of an anomaly in that its demographics are more akin to Omaha, Nebraska than your typical Southwestern city.  The city is 81% White, 12% Hispanic and 3% African American.  The crime rate is low, the schools are good and her citizens are happy.

However, I suspect there is an additional factor weighing in on the city's decision to "pass on the gravy".  I know a few people who live out that way.  They say they have begun to see an increase in the crime rate as soon as they started building that low cost housing.  In providing that low cost housing Gilbert was beginning to attract that huge swath of 47 percent government tit suckers who will suck the very soul from a community.  Just as in Detroit, or Baltimore, or Chicago, or South Central Los Angeles, or downtown Phoenix, those low cost housing projects soon become slums and ghettos and ground zero for drug sales and violent crime.

I believe Gilbert is showing the foresight to say no to the federal gravy, thus saving themselves from a passel of problems associated with luring the life demeaning tit-suckers who have destroyed so many other cities.

No, the Gilbert town council will never say it....but I believe they decided to fore go the gravy so that they might continue basking in peaches and cream.

11 comments:

Rebecca said...

Good for Gilbert! And I believe you are correct; they don't want all the problems that come with building this type of housing in their neighborhoods. It really isn't worth it .

I pass through a low income housing section of a city on my drive to work. (I live deep in the suburbs, almost rural - there are quite a few farms and orchards - it's well woth the drive, no question!) There are always loads of people hanging around on the streets, either in burkas or expensive sneakers and jeans hanging off their butts.

What I find most interesting: in spite of the fact that the city is broke, the landscaping around the projects is perfect and is always kept up. The streets are constantly being cleaned. The area is always well decorated at the holidays. Something new is always being built, with public dollars no doubt, like more housing and new state of the art playgrounds and other recreational facilities. How does a broke city always manage to have unlimited money to spend in neighborhoods where people pay nothing in taxes and live on the dole?

Compare this to where I live. The taxes are astromically high. Example: for a 2400 square foot house, $10k in taxes a year. This is not a mcmansion by any means; 3 bedroom house - pretty standard. We have no sidewalks, no streetlights, well water, we pay for our own garbage collection - basically we get nothing except snow plowing, and very little of it at that. (Yes, if we have kids, I could send them to public school, but I wouldn't. We'd pay for catholic school for sure, but public school isn't the topic here so I'll leave it at that.)

How can it be like this? What gives?

Rebecca said...

Another thing, I don't want to give the impression that I am against helping the poor because I'm not. I believe charity and good works are important and good for the soul. I'm just much more inclined to give if the government isn't forcing me to do it. There is a huge difference between voluntary giving and excessive involuntary taxation. The former is a choice; the latter is slavery.

A Modest Scribler said...

Wow, Rebecca! I'm afraid I'd have to move out of a community that hit me up for that kind of property tax assessment; that would simply eat up a huge hunk of my pension.

As to charity, I've written several blogs about how we used to handle charity...before it became mandatory under the Great Society programs. As soon as politicians learned they could buy votes with welfare money it only got worse.

Remember the Lyndon Johnson tapes? After passing his Great Society programs Johnson was recorded telling the Speaker of the House, John McCormak "we'll have them niggers voting for us for the next hundred years!". Pretty sad.

Unknown said...

Glad to hear about those heart attacks, that outta change future elections.

Rebecca said...

I live in upstate NY. Be assured that this property tax bill is neither exaggerated nor uncommon. New York isn't known as "the Welfare State" for no reason.

My sister went south a couple years ago to NC. She makes about the same gross salary as I do. However, her standard of living is better because everything is cheaper: taxes, gas, utilities, food, all of it. And she says the people are much nicer in general. The only reason I haven't considered this option is because I absolutely hate the heat. They say your body adjusts; I find this hard to believe.

Re:LBJ. This was before I was born, but I've seen this quote on other pages.

Re:charity. I haven't seen those essays, but eventually I will.

Well friends, I should get to it. Much to accomplish today as I slacked yesterday. Good day to all.

Rebecca said...

PS: Retirees moving out of here happens all the time. To quote: "Sad. Damned Sad."

A Modest Scribler said...

Don't we wish, Brian.

A Modest Scribler said...

Rebecca, I think you could acclimate to a different climate just by counting all the "cool' cash you'd save.
As I said before, I would have no choice but to move away from those property taxes...mine are exactly one 20th of yours.

Anonymous said...

I was shocked when I relocated here in early 2000 and saw how cheap the property taxes are here. I had a nicer historical home that I paid 25,000 for in a decent working class neighborhood and 3 BR's with a basement. My taxes were over 1700 a year. Here I bought a home for 143,000 (appraised at 220,000 when I got done with it) and my tax bill was less than 1,000.00

A Modest Scribler said...

Yes, anon..thanks to years and years of conservative control of our state legislature...and plenty of conservative citizens not afraid to raise hell about tax raises, Arizona is pretty good on taxes.

However, that notorious 47%, combined with liberal transplants continue to dwell in downtown Phoenix and is going "to the liberal dark side" a little more each year.

Ken said...

Good show Gilbert!! It's quite obvious everywhere you go that caters to low income, next comes blight and crime waves a plenty. Why nobody at the time could see through LBJ's hypocrisy at the time astounds me still. We were a much more intelligent nation back then and the black folks actually were far more productive and self sufficient. Just pass freebie laws and look what we get.

"we'll have them niggers voting for us for the next hundred years!" Now they have them spics as this once great country heads down the toilet. Sorry folks but the proof is in the history, the white race really ain't so bad. Look what we have given to all the minorities who refuse to pay their own way, and very few of us ever complained once, unlike yourselves who complain perpetually.