MADISON “OLD TOWN” FORUM

Let’s stay on track here. The real issue is property taxes-the KDH/Redevelopment Commission $600,000 give-away is just one example, but a very real one. In terms we can all understand: There are about 10,000 property tax payers in Jefferson County, so in the end, this $600,000 boondoggle represents, on average about $60 per property tax payer. To paraphrase the late Sen. Kefhaufer of IL, $60 here and $60 there, and before you know it you are talking about real property tax money.

Now, if its true that the KDH director’s salary is about $1,000,000 per year, that puts him in the top 99.99 per income bracket for the county. Should he elect to make a $600,000 donation to pay for the utility line to his hospital, he would be left with a paltry $400,000 in income -still in the top 95% for the county (I do not know his actual salary, just from what was posted by an earlier poster) Now $60 in additional property tax may not sound like much to the members of the Redevelopment Commission or the Executives at KDH, for those of us on a fixed income or SS, it makes a real difference-espeacially when multiplied by all the other $60 per taxpayer giveaways.

The real problem is not with the various commissions and boards in Jefferson county -it does not matter whether they are Democratic as are the county officials, Republican as was the past administration, or non-political as are the school boards. Its just that its not their money and they are allowed to act with impunity.

The real problem is with the local media. In progressive towns and cities with open government, the local media gives the populace the facts. Not so here.

For this very reason the Town Hall Fourm was given birth to bridge this gap giving the people a safe place to vent or to express their views without reprisal.

If the facts vis-a-vis KDHs finances were known, do you really think KDH would have the guts to even ask for a $600,000 grant or if they did do you think the Commission would have the courage to give away our money? So, who is really paying the tab?

Mulitple this by all the other giveaways and one can begin to see why Jefferson county has one of the highest property tax rates in the state, high unemployment, and one of the lowest per-capita incomes.

Have been thinking a lot lately about the question posed by JB as to what can be done to move Madison forward? As a parent with older graduating children moving out into the workforce, this has become especially important to me personally. But I don’t have really have any answers yet - I really didn’t realize how simply my family lives until I started thinking about this. We drive old cars - so we haven’t supported the automobile industry very well - we garden and grow our own beef - that takes away from the grocery industry and we have been pretty healthy (thank goodness) so we haven’t supported health care very well Then I tried to think about the things that people do buy - clothing, electronic gadgets of every variety, and home goods - but none of these lends itself to being a large employer.  Seems to me in order for Madison to not wither away, it is going to have to make itself attractive to businesses like Belletech that just set up shop in Versailles.  It is an automotive parts supplier for the Honda plant in Greensburg. However, in order for that to happen Madison needs to have better available transportion for moving manufactured goods.  President-elect Obama stated in his speeches that he was in favor of road building to accomplish such goals. Madison needs desperately to improve its infrastructure before anthing positive can happen with respect to employment. Now the question is how can we as taxpayers get this ball rolling?

Where are we going? We sit around waiting for Santa Clause to come and fill up our industrial park at 800K per acre. We keep waiting for an interstate connector to appear along with a new bridge and maybe GM or Ford will build something here soon. Nope! Not happening. Santa is not coming and we will not see a new bridge or a connector in our life time. Madison keeps going down hill at a steady pace.

So what do we do? We have always had a hard time of seeing the forest because the trees get in the way. What is Madison’s most valuable asset? Again, it is not Santa. The single most important attribute we have is this “Old Town” itself not Grote, Rotary Lift or MIDCOR.

This “Old Town” has been put in the hands of a single person Linda Lytle and this industry keeps going in circles. If we are serious about saving Madison we must break this political circles of going nowhere and promote what we have and build upon this new and uprising industry with fresh ideas and new people. The tourism industry has developed over many years, in response to the demands made upon it. It is time we wake up and see the forest.