From the Bloomington Herald-Times:
Talk about sticker shock.
Pity the poor people of Salt Creek Township, who had a tax rate increase of 421 percent to pay for fire protection fees that were not paid in 2011 and that are owed in 2012.
Unfortunately for them, the city of Bloomington had to sue to collect the money that was overdue. The state Department of Local Government Finance set the new rate based on the number of fire runs made by the Bloomington Fire Department to the township.
A simple missed deadline caused this — which meant that taxes in the township were lower in 2011 than they should have been because no fire protection fees were paid. The lesson to the story should be clear, though.
Public services have a cost. While politicians often portray taxes as an evil burden, the money collected more often than not is spent on something important such as protecting homes and property.
It is important for taxpayers to monitor the taxes they pay, but a knee-jerk reaction opposing all taxes is shortsighted. Services are not free.
http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2012/06/07/digitalcity.a-lesson-from-salt-creek-about-tax-bills.sto
