A tax increase for which I will happily vote Yea.

I live in Slaughter, Louisiana. Population according to the last census was just north of 1000. My property is valued at somewhere between $150k and $180k. 1.5 acres, 2500sf brick home, far off the end of a dead end bordering nothing but a pasture. I have a handgun shooting range in my back yard that no one has yet complained about.

The only issue with this town is the quality of the roads. THEY ARE HORRID. Truly bad. They would be smoother if they were dirt. My favorite joke is that the railroad grade crossing you drive over as you turn off of the main street to get to my house is the smoothest portion of the entire road. I have never seriously complained about the roads, though. Shortly, I'll explain why.

The town has just sent out a news letter stating that because of the numerous complaints, they are looking for ways to finance repairing the roads. The only way they have found, given that we aren't lucky enough to be able to deficit spend, is to raise the mil rate.

Hardcore libertarian that I am, you might expect me to be up in arms. I am not.

Flash back to November 2005 when I closed on my property. I was sitting in the conference room at the Title company speed-reading all of the various and sundry contracts when I stumbled across the tax estimates for the property.

I paused. Blinked. Looked again and asked the owners if there was a mistake. They said, no, that was what they paid last year, and they couldn't believe that it had gone up so much.

The tax burden that stopped me in my tracks and made me never complain about anything related to Slaughter's services, was $250.

Per Year.

And it hasn't really gone up notably in the intervening four years.

I was paying more than twice that per MONTH on a house valued at $210k in Connecticut before I moved here. Never mind that there is no personal property tax on cars and the like down here either.

So, if the town wants to raise my taxes a bit to pay for road repair, so be it. Hell, If they want to raise my taxes a bit to cover the hookers and blow at the office Christmas party, I'm OK with it, (as long as I'm invited.) I'll forgo a few beers per week to cover it.