TUESDAY WAS A WAKE UP CALL FOR A LOT OF LOCAL POLITICIANS

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Rather than blame individuals for losses at the polls, Maple Heights City Hall should have been astute enough to smell the political and economic climate.

A Washington Times editorial:

"Voters are smarter than the politicians sometimes figure. Tuesday wasn’t a good day only for the men and women running for office under the Republican banner; it was a smashing day for lower taxes, responsible spending and government transparency as well. Ballot measures everywhere put economic policy to the ultimate test.

A stick-it-to-the-rich proposal on the ballot in Nevada would have imposed a 2 percent tax on businesses with more than $1 million in annual revenues. The money collected was to have been earmarked for public schools, but voters saw through the “for the children” ruse and realized increasing the cost of doing business by $750 million was a dumb thing to do in a stagnant economy. This big idea was thumped by a 4-to-1 margin on Tuesday.

Tennessee voters had the good judgment to amend the state constitution to forbid state and local governments from implementing an income tax. This will preserve Tennessee’s reputation as a good place to live and do business. Georgia has an income tax, so residents decided to minimize the damage politicians can do by voting 3-to-1 to cap the income-tax rate so that lawmakers will be powerless to raise it in the future.

Even blue states such as Massachusetts are warming to fiscal responsibility. Residents weary of living in a state nicknamed “Taxachusetts” repealed a law enacted last year that automatically raises the state gasoline tax every year by the inflation rate. They jettisoned a scheme to apply bottle-deposit fees to containers of water, juice, sports drinks and most other beverages.

Legislators in Maryland and Wisconsin have made raiding their state transportation funds to finance pet projects an annual rite of passage, so voters have fought back with constitutional amendments preventing a raid on fuel taxes and motor-registration fees to pad the general fund. The limitations garnered more than 80 percent of the vote.

The vote tallies were also big at the local level. In Cleveland and its suburb Maple Heights, Ohio, voters repudiated the city council’s decision to station automated highwaymen on every street corner. Ballot initiatives forbidding local officials from using revenue cameras passed by three-fourths of the vote. When the city council in St. Peters, Mo., refused to listen to constituents on the issue, the St. Charles County Council proposed a charter amendment prohibiting revenue speed cameras within the county limits — including St. Peters. It passed with 73 percent of the vote."

Until many local politicians "wake up and smell the political and economic coffee" their cities will continue to decline not just in population, but a decline in more services and more revenue.  Voters hate non-accountable, judgmental, "try to scare you to death", non transparent, bullying, money grabbing politicians; and some things are more important to voters than salary giveaways to certain government employees,  padding certain pensions, and allowing *more and more non-residents to serve as local government employees (which helps stifle local economies - there needs to be a balance).

It's time to listen to the majority of city residents and not the few!!

Voters shutter red-light cameras: Editorial cartoon

"Traffic cameras are automated speed traps that have sped over the public's right to due process.   The money they generate amounts to a traffic tax.    70% of the automated tickets were issued to drivers from outside the city.    Every street that has the cameras essentially becomes a toll road."

The courts have done an injustice to many cities in Ohio

by allowing unyielding non residency requirements and that's a shame.

* For residency requirements

• Local control/home rule • Spends local tax dollars on residents/taxpayers • Stems "middle-class" flight and provides economic stability to certain urban neighborhoods • Provides employment for residents • Provides racial and ethnic balance in public employment jobs • Benefit of certain workers living in close proximity to their work station • Benefit of staff living and working in the communities they protect and educate • Longer commute times impact employees, congestion, and transportation infrastructure • Money circulates within the city helping to stabilize the local economy Resentment by local residents is quelled.