We're number one.
It is curious that the Wed. Sept. 28, 2005, Strib reported, "City taxes are on the rise," and noted that Ramsey taxes had increased more than any of the fourteen other Anoka County cities listed.
Ramsey taxes went up 22.4%, Ham Lake's rose more than 20%, and the next closest city was Andover at 13.2%; almost half the raise that our Council imposed.
What makes this curious is that some politicians are now claiming a host of things are being done without it coming from "your Ramsey tax dollars."
Curiously, no explanation is given where your Ramsey tax dollars are disappearing to, and if elected, the first thing I would do is look at the books.
Curiously, these same politicians now give us no explanation on whose tax dollars are being spent for such public purposes; or explaining how much things cost and how things get paid for.
That seems to be the correct thing to put in a couple of pages of factual text.
Besides "tax and spend" what do you do for government money? Borrow and spend? "Fee" and spend, as some would distinguish things? What's up?
There's no smoke and mirrors in stating: Project xxx cost $yyy, and our souces for paying are $aaaa and $bbbb, from county property taxes, Uncle Sam, state income taxes, whatever taxes and whatever other non-tax income there is. Met Council, like Ramsey, taxes and spends, but some of their taxes are called "fees" and applied by their set of rules.
Bottom line: In the past we've raised taxes more than others, with no real explanations given.