Village Spillage

NOW you have hit a nerve!  The MATC tax got under my skin at the very first tax bill we received.  Phone calls fell on deaf years 8 years ago.

My thoughts on the difference in rate - and this is only a guess but the property taxes on the houses in other areas are less and more homes and the average cost goes down.

I'm only guessing... don't know anything.

You may appreciate this blog post I wrote back in September:

http://blogs.whitefishbaynow.com/village_spillage/archive/2007/09/04/Who-doesn_2700_t-want-out-of-MATC_3F00_-.aspxhttp://blogs.whitefishbaynow.com/village_spillage/archive/2007/09/04/Who-doesn_2700_t-want-out-of-MATC_3F00_-.aspx'>

do remember Kevin!  The thing is, people need to get on the phone, write an email or letter to our County Supervisor and Village Board and provide the feedback on how they feel about this.

Elected officials react to their constituents concerns - no correspondence - no action.

And I do want to say that Supervisor Rice is a very approachable guy.  I have contacted him on various topics and I always receive a response - either via email or letter.  My topics have been researched by his office.    They have been as simple as helping me connect to the right people for kids golf in the Milwaukee County Parks, to acknowledging an email and photograph taken of a rotting support beam I noticed on a building in Estabrook Park.  He forwarded the information on to the right people/department and I didn't have to waste a half of a day getting passed around via phone.  

Most recently I received a letter to my inquiry that Red Arrow Park was not open after that last big snowstorm.  The website stated it was open, based on weather in March.  I felt 32 degrees was cold enough to be open and the response I received was he contacted the Parks Director, the factors the rink would be open and the fact that March is exposed to more sunshine than usual, as well as warmer temperatures.  This caused the rink to melt faster.  I would like to quote "Despite the fact that the temperature may be at the freezing point, the staff has to run the equipment to full capacity in order to maintain consistent quality of ice.  Running the equipment at this pace for several days can cause severe damage according to Mr. Ward."

The point here is I get a response.  My concerns are taken seriously, the response is in a timely fashion and I don't feel belittled for my question.  In a case of cruising at Miller Park, I didn't get the response I hoped for, but I got a response - professional and timely.

But you and I can not do it alone.  Our community members need to get involved and not be afraid to take action.  We need to make government work for us and the key to that is communication.  Our Representatives can not read our minds.

We need to be careful about an unhealthy us-vs.-them mentality with respect to the city. Simply put, our communities wouldn't exist without the cultural and business magnet of Milwaukee. And the North Shore wouldn't be nearly as excellent of a place to live. We're too quick to ignore how much we benefit from all the city has to offer. Our communities need each other. Regional cooperation is a must for our region to continue thriving.

And looking at the issue of per-capita tax burden: It makes sense in a property-tax system that an area with much higher average property values--as in the North Shore, which we should be grateful for--carries a higher per-capita burden. And it makes sense that the City of Milwaukee, which represents the largest chunk geographically and demographically in the county, should receive the largest share of county funds.

We can go down the road of isolation of our communities (take, for instance, Glendale trying to opt out of the North Shore Fire Department), but I think we'll all be worse off for it.