Free Republic

Wisconsin's total statewide property taxes are up .3 percent in 2012 — the smallest increase in 15 years, according to the Wisconsin Taxpayers' Alliance. The nonprofit tax research organization said the tax increase is small this year because the school levy, the largest part of a property owner's bill, dropped 1 percent. State-imposed revenue limits were the main cause for the reduction, the group said. The last time property taxes were held to such a small increase was in 1996-97, when the state used $1 billion in state tax revenues to "buy down" local school property-tax levies, the group said....

(CNSNews.com) – In 2005, Michael and Chantell Sackett were working toward what many American families work toward, their own home on their own land, until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) halted their plans by declaring it a “wetland.” On Monday, Jan. 9, the Sacketts and their attorneys will ask the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court to not only restore the right to use their own land – but to break the absolute power the EPA has over protected wetlands. The Sacketts, small business owners in Idaho, located a lot in the northern part of the state in a...

In a case watched closely by energy companies and manufacturers, the Supreme Court is set to consider Monday whether to blunt one of the government's chief tools for enforcing the Clean Water Act. Based on "any information"—even a newspaper article or an anonymous tip—the Environmental Protection Agency can issue an administrative compliance order directing a property owner to stop discharging pollutants or restore a damaged wetland. The government says such directives, similar to stop-work orders by local zoning inspectors, allow it to respond rapidly to prevent environmental damage.

MADISON — The flat tax has arrived in Wisconsin in a manner of speaking. Property tax bills on average are going up 0.3 percent statewide this year, according to an initial analysis by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, or WTA. The WTA, a nonpartisan organization that studies tax issues, attributes the “nearly flat” trend to the budget changes pushed through by Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-led Legislature, which cut aid to local governments and set stricter limits on property tax increases. Individual property tax bills are affected by, for example, a local government’s debt, the amount of new construction in...

Thank you - and your colleagues Edward Lotterman, Frederick Melo and Ruben Rosario - for shedding light on the city of St. Paul/Ramsey County real estate tax "system." That system puzzles me. Should I conclude that it is broken? Perhaps even a less than artful attempt, like mine below, might add to your helpful analysis. Compare the real estate tax system to the "progressive'' income tax. A published schedule indicates the basic tax burden that a particular amount of income will bear. Or, compare the real estate tax to the "regressive'' sales tax. A product purchase price leads to a...

Breastfeeding mothers staged a "nurse-in" Wednesday at Target stores nationwide to show solidarity with a Texas woman who said she was ridiculed for breastfeeding her baby at a Houston store. Michelle Hickman organized a Facebook campaign to call for the "nurse-in," which took place in several US cities including Houston, Knoxville, Tenn., and Decatur, Ill. About 50 nursing mothers showed up to protest at the Webster, Texas, Target store where Hickman said she was harassed last month, MyFOXhouston reported.

NC city mulls rules change for Occupy protestersDec 20, 9:00 AM EST WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- City council members in Winston-Salem have postponed a vote on an ordinance that would have temporarily declared city hall is no longer public property. **SNIP** Some council members said they were uncomfortable voting on the changes without advance notice or a public hearing. The council will take up the matter next month.

“Do you support the Occupy protests?” people often ask me. As a libertarian, my answer to that question is long, complex and inconclusive. I’m critical of a lot of the Occupiers’ economic demands, but I’m very proud of how strong the decentralized structure of this movement has become, even if only as a populist showing-of-teeth. Perhaps Wes Messamore best described the difference between libertarianism and OWS with a Lord of the Rings metaphor. Messamore explains that the left wants “to use the power of the state (the ring) to rein in and defeat the corporations (Sauron).” Libertarians, however, “seek to...

LONGVIEW, TX (KLTV) - A suspected car burglar nearly paid with his life after a homeowner shot him. The shooting happened around 1 a.m. at a residence in the 100 block of Richardson Street in Longview. A frightening night for the homeowner who did not want to be identified, who was victimized yet again by a car burglar. "This is probably our fifth or sixth time this year and we're fed up with it. I don't think it's fair my--husband works really hard," said the victim. It was one in the morning, the homeowners at the house were asleep when...

In the past, most if not all North American indigenous peoples had a strong belief in individual property rights and ownership. Frederick Hodge (1910) noted that individual private ownership was “the norm” for North American tribes. Likewise, Julian Steward (1938, 253) asserted that among Native Americans communal property was limited, and Frances Densmore (1939) concluded that the Makah tribe in the Pacific Northwest had property rights similar to Europeans.’ These early twentieth-century historians and anthropologists had the advantage of actually interviewing tribal members who had lived in pre-reservation Indian society.

When the Pilgrims landed in 1620, they established a system of communal property. Within three years they had scrapped it, instituting private property instead. Hoover media fellow Tom Bethell tells the story. There are three configurations of property rights: state, communal, and private property. Within a family, many goods are in effect communally owned. But when the number of communal members exceeds normal family size, as happens in tribes and communes, serious and intractable problems arise. It becomes costly to police the activities of the members, all of whom are entitled to their share of the total product of the...

A federal judge sentenced Tony Rezko to 10 1/2 years in prison Tuesday, describing his actions under Rod Blagojevich’s tenure as “selfish and corrupt.” Rezko has already served about 44 months. His daughter burst into tears at hearing the sentence. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve said she found it offensive that Rezko put at risk the Teachers’ Retirement System by scheming for kickbacks with a board member in 2004. “You put their retirements at risk for your own greed and your own thirst for power,” St. Eve said. A pale, thin Rezko gave a brief statement before he learned...

The UN plan referenced by Newt Gingrich is a real threat to private property and US sovereignty.“Agenda 21 proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by every person on Earth…it calls for specific changes in the activities of all people… Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all humans, unlike anything the world has ever experienced… ” - Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet (Earthpress, 1993). Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich stated during a recent campaign event that the United Nations was seeking to create an “extraconstitutional control” over...

President Obama wants to control all the land and all the water in the United States. Legislation that would have deleted the word "navigable" from the federal Clean Water Act and given the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction over every drop of moisture in the country crashed and burned last Congress. But Obama's EPA, as usual, won't take no for an answer, and is now attempting to ignore two Supreme Court decisions, commonsense, and the American people and vastly expand federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction via guidance document. AFP activists put more than 21,000 comments into the regulatory...

Between 1764 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776 Americans produced a rich series of pamphlets and resolutions listing their grievances against the central government of the British Empire. As I have pointed out before, reading those pamphlets is very helpful in understanding what the Constitution really means. And ignorance of them contributes to common constitutional mistakes. These pamphlets are particularly useful in comprehending the Founders’ version of federalism. This is because the constitutional balance between states and federal government partly reflected what the Founders had wanted the balance to be between colonies and imperial government. One of the most...

CAMDENTON, Mo. (AP) -- Nearly every year, Patsy Riley has gotten unsolicited offers for her house on Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks with its spectacular views of tree-lined bluffs and its ample shoreline, but she never wanted to leave. Now, she and hundreds of her neighbors wonder what will become of their homes after a federal agency declared that many structures built close to the lake may have to go. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, citing restrictions on private developments around dams, says thousands of residences, decks, patios and boathouses appear to encroach on land belonging to the hydroelectric project...

...The orders do tremendous harm to the economy as well as to people’s lives by preventing them from using their property the way they had intended. This is one reason that the Physical Property Rights ranking by the International Property Rights Index (IPRI) has shown a decline in recent years for the United States. The great harm that each and everyone one of these “administrative compliance orders” causes has recently been brought home by a couple from Idaho. Mike and Chantell Sackett purchased .63 acres of land for $23,000 in 2005 to build their dream home. Despite being 500 feet...

As the national media continues to promote the idea that these absurd "Occupy" protests demonstrate some groundswell of popular opinion, reports continue to emerge from localized media showing how ugly these encampments are becoming. A report out of Cleveland that  police are investigating a rape claim made by a 19-year-old woman last weekend has received little attention. Do you suppose if a rape claim was made against a tea partier that it would receive more attention?It's gotten so bad in Baltimore that organizers are discouraging alleged victims from going to the police (maybe they should go to Sheriff Biden).Meanwhile,...

When the New York state legislature rammed through a law “legalizing” same-sex “marriage” this last summer, countless New Yorkers disagreed with the decision. Among them were Christian town clerks who could not in good conscience sign marriage licenses for a union they consider sinful. Clauses were written in the law that supposedly protect clergy from being forced to act against their faith. However, such clauses do not apply to town clerks or any other government official. Clerks are told point blank, either accept the law, or resign. Town clerk Rose Marie Belforti of Ledyard, New York found out the hard...

Just imagine. You want to build a home, so you buy a $23,000 piece of land in a residential subdivision in your hometown and get started. The government then tells you to stop, threatens you with $40 million in fines and is not kidding. That's the case now before the U.S. Supreme Court, with briefs being filed today by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of a Priest Lake, Idaho, family, Chantell and Mike Sackett. Attorney Damien Schiff, who will be arguing before the high court in the case, said it's simply a case of a government run amok, and...