Freeze is for long-term good

Many new homeowners in Columbus are disgruntled because they feel the tax freeze is unfair. I would like to give you a simple view as to why it is a very fair system.

Scenario 1: A young couple buys a house in 1960. Cost of the house is $12,000 and taxes were say $100 a year. It is now the year 2000. That same house is now valued for tax purposes at $100,000 and your yearly tax bill is still $100. Your neighbor of 40 years sells his house, identical to yours, to a couple for $100,000; the new tax on that house is now frozen at $1200 a year. The new owners are upset when they find out how much you pay in taxes.

Scenario 2: The year is 2040. The house that couple bought in 2000 for $100,000 is now valued at $250,000 and a tax rate of $3,500 a year and their taxes are still $1,200 a year.

So to all you new homeowners, the time will come when you can look back and be grateful for the tax freeze. The amounts I quoted are purely hypothetical, but you get the point.

Many years ago an article in the L-E mentioned a couple who bought a cabin at the beach sometime in the ‘50s. This was to be their vacation and later retirement home. When they got ready to retire, their cabin was valued at over $1 million and the taxes on it were $10,000 a year. Get the big picture. You could possibly be taxed out of your house.

The time has come

Some citizens feel the “Freeze” protects residents who are in it and all newcomers from the government. What seemed like a good decision to protect citizens back in 1982, when Interest rates were 21%, has now created a “welcome stranger” tax for all new residents. Ask anyone who has purchased a primary residence in the last 10 years in Muscogee County if they believe the Freeze is fair.

Does the Freeze really protect us? Yes, the Freeze has been slowly building a wall around Muscogee County with “Don’t Move Here” signs posted every 100 feet. It’s protecting us from new businesses, new opportunities and new residents.

Who would move to a community that is building a wall around itself? Only people who have no other choice. And when they do have another choice, they leave our community.

This wall needs to come down. Not all at once, but over the next 7-10 years, one brick at a time. A Yes vote for the last item on the November Ballot will remove the first brick.

The 1980s also gave us Glamour Shots, waterbeds, video rental stores, big hair and shoulder pads. What seemed like good ideas at the time were soon dismissed with reason and logic.

If something has been wrong for 30 years, I suggest that is long enough. Please wake up, Columbus! Vote Yes for our community and Thaw The Freeze.

Real leadership

As Christians, we must confess that we have let down our guard on our behavior as to who is really in charge of our nation. Talking and looking good and performing are each very separate matters. Take driving as an example. Whether lane changing, weaving in traffic, yakking or texting on our cell phones, we are forgetting our important part in the security of ourselves and each other. Altogether, we are now reaping what we have sown. We are so distracted right now that when we glance up at the road and see a squirrel, we helter-skelter veer off the road and into a ditch or head-on to each other.

The nation weirdly, ironically, even sanctimoniously sometimes can automatically pivot on tweets, or "P" or "F" words. Huh? Pray, people, pray. While we clutch and grab for anything that might make us feel better about our own pathetic forgetful selves we are losing a nation. Christ, the "J" word, got it right ... we are all sinners. We must admit it! Let us be tough enough to repent and get back on track focusing on the words and promises and deeds that created us and our country. We, the very fortunate free citizens, are still the real bosses of these so-called leaders ... for the most part, they are simply leaves before the gale ... a real leader is Christ, who knows the truth and is strong enough to call us out.

Lord, please grant us freedom, grow us in every way, guide us, guard us inside and out, and lead us to cause no pain in others. As Jesus led us by his example, we can again lead the world in our gratitude.

This story was originally published October 13, 2016 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Freeze is for long-term good."