Stupid Season
Taking a time out from our trip down memory lane as we celebrate 30 years of Zeitgeist and DMOproz...because it's getting stupid out there. And we have clearly moved from an era of good governance, dedicated to improving lives of constituents, to electeds only trying to get reelected. That is all that matters any more.
By now, you've likely heard of the bone-headed efforts to defund Destination Marketing Organizations in Florida. But, as we suggested would happen a few weeks ago, the idiocy in Florida has begun to infect other parts of the country.
This one is a little less insidious because it's not a direct attack on DMOs. Instead, it was a ham handed attempt to throttle local governments from increasing property taxes beyond an arbitrary number. Not unlike Florida, these are state legislators attempting to curry favor with the local electorate by acting like they are protecting them from the crazies on City Council. Except, if a municipality needs to increase property taxes for an initiative that will actually benefit the community, why the hell should the State block that?
But that's what they've done. Now that there is a cap on the growth of property taxes in Iowa, Iowa cities are scrambling to balance their budgets. And guess where they believe they can do that?
Room tax.
Which will result in a decrease in future room, sales and property tax revenues in the long run.
But yeah, most City Council members aren't that sophisticated nor understand how the economy works.
Sadly.
Shouldn't there be a requirement for all candidates to go to a class to understand how all this works?