Irate St. Clair County residents are not mincing words when it comes to expressing their anger over the board’s decision to raise already sky-high property taxes.
“We’ve got more than a hundred comments on our Facebook page where residents have sounded off on board members over this, and the only reason we don’t have more is because our profanity sensors have filtered them out,” Republican Party County Chairman Doug Jameson told the Metro East Sun. “I think 2018 might be a time of big change in office holders because people have had enough.”
Sparking the latest outcry is the board’s 26-2 vote to raise the property tax levy. Seven of nine Republican board members voted in favor of the measure, with Nick Miller and David Tiedemann the only two voting against.
“I’ve already called a meeting for all Republican members where I want them to explain to me what their thinking was for going along with this,” Jameson said. "I guess they must know something and I and the general public don't know."
Jameson might also want to ask how board members can justify coming up with a way to collect even more money from taxpayers after they voted down a pair of tax increase referendums in early April.
“We just had referendums defeated that would have raised the public safety tax and a sales tax by 1 percent each rejected,” he said. “The thinking was that voters were clearly expressing they were being taxed enough.”
Jameson fears there will be a price to pay for the board’s latest actions.
“Some residents have already told me they are moving away, and other people are electing not to purchase homes here,” he said. “The question of what’s happening to all the money residents are already paying in one of the highest-taxed states in the nation needs to be answered. The frustration is at a level where it’s ready to boil over.”
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