Should You Let the Assessor In?

Why you might think twice about NOT letting the county assessor into your house is they are looking for improvements in your home, so they can jack up the assessment. Which is fine; I support people who can afford cathedral ceilings and Jacuzzis paying more. However, the assessor needs to acknowledge the real devaluators of property—noise, traffic, flooding, chemical and light pollution, access to water and sewer.

            When the nice assessor lady showed up, I wrote the Dubuque County Assessor Billie Selby, and told him I would make an appointment with her, if I could be assured that they would adjust the value of my property on the basis of the real devaluators:  I formerly lived across from a park—i.e. grass and trees, what is there now is a chain link fence, concrete and an ugly brown pool tech building. Having given Callahan construction its own sewer that my neighbor and I can’t tap into, the city has increased traffic past here (to River Bend) perhaps tenfold.

Most neighborhoods have a discreet light on the corner every couple blocks, the light pollution from the pool and the large flood light on the corner makes it all but impossible to see any but the brightest stars at night. There are others, flooding and chemical pollution but they don’t acknowledge them either—what they really look at is the sales. I am sure they pay far more attention to what the Takes’ sold their house. So…  

You are within your legal right to refuse (this is stated on the postcard they sent to alert us of the visit) and if you have any other devaluators, (yours may be different than mine,) I would not let them in. I will not until they come up with a formula that is fairer and more realistic. Is that too much to ask?

 

Cascade City Council: Doing Biz's Bidding

All but a couple items on the 26-item agenda at Monday night’s Cascade Council meeting were city services the business community.  Most had to do with enlarging TIF (Tax Increment Financing) district, thereby providing tax rebates to: 1) Iowa Main Street Investments LLC,  2) R & D Vaske LLC, 3) Eastern Iowa Excavating & Concrete, 4) Maryville/Cascade Lumber, 5) 3-B Properties, and then shamelessly dispensing with the democratic charade of reconsidering these decisions at subsequent meetings by waiving 2^nd and 3^rd readings. Most votes were 4-0, with Kelchen absent.

The very glib “Interim” City Administrator Lisa Kotter thinks we don’t know what TIF is, but we do—everybody pays taxes but companies in the TIF area get a portion of theirs back. The rest of us don’t. That’s TIF in a nutshell.  In a couple years you will see payments of 4, 5, perhaps even 6 figures out of the city budget going to these companies. It was legally signed, sealed and delivered at last night’s meeting. Set in stone for the next 5 to 10 years. Too late then.

Meanwhile, the city street sweeper is about to bite the dust, and Council is not sure how it will afford a new or used (?) one. Duh! Me either.

The proceedings came to a screeching halt when Mike Beck showed up to say he wants to cram 6 condos or apartments into a spot where 4 had been platted. There are only 4 sewer hook-ups there, so four of the units will have to share 2 Y couplings to the sewer main. A fire hydrant might have to be moved to accommodate the cramming. No decisions were taken.

To complete its business service evening, council held a public hearing to amend the building code to allow “fitness and exercise type” businesses in commercial and manufacturing zones, which it seems, is where they belong. 

Council finished the evening off by OK-ing 4 x 4/all terrain vehicles on Hwy 136. This is what I mean by unintended consequences—it was originally thought these vehicles would lessen the pollution, noise and traffic on city streets.  Be good for the environment. That appears to have been wrong. Now what?

2 Essential Books on Addiction & the Destruction of Democracy

Until I read Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe and American Cartel by ­Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz, most of what I knew about the pharmaceutical industry I learned teaching in Turkey: the only drug I take (Levothyroxine), prescribed for folks with underperforming thyroids, cost then between $15 and $30 a month in the U.S., but there, it was $3.50 for a 3 months’ supply! The U.S. is Big Pharma’s cash cow and it has no compunctions about bleeding us dry. Reading these two books, depressing as it is, gives you chapter and verse of who’s responsible for the opioid crisis.

Keefe’s book, a slower read, outlines the history of the Sackler Family from 1920s, who toward the end of the last century plastered their name on wings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, buildings at Harvard, Cambridge, even the Louvre and the British museums. While portraying themselves as great philanthropists, the Sackers, employing some of the best legal minds in the country, quietly undermined the Drug Enforcement Agency, Food & Drug Administration, and any other enforcement arm of the government that might try to hold them to account.

Yes, and the U.S. Congress, whom they leveraged to pass laws that were in the best interest of their industry creating an opioid addiction crisis especially the Appalachian coal country states, while they destroyed our democracy.These people have a lot to answer for, but so far, none has. A few dedicated DEA people, sweat blood to hold them to account but either lost or watched a paltry settlement that would not undo the harm done result.

The bottom line is:  none of the wealthy men and women, companies or their lawyers who brought us the opioid crisis is in jail. None of the poor and powerless addicts, who left orphaned children, overwhelmed grandparents, sundered communities and bereft families has been compensated. The few court victories that have been handed down have come from juries because they understand misery and don’t need a law to do what is right. Judges can’t seem to sort that one.

These two books tell us far more than we want to know, but most of what we should know about the immorality of the drug industry, our political leaders and our courts.  If you have to pick one, American Cartel is a shorter, faster paced, more comprehensive read.

One would also do well to take one giant step back, and ask how our own local democracy—city and county government--has been compromised by business for whom the bottom line is the primary value. What is the impact of 5 business people on the Cascade City Council?

Loving Labor Day after a Bummer Summer

What with derechos, downed trees, Covid, and an ongoing battle with the pool over loudspeaker even my houseguests complained about, it’s been a Bummer Summer.

Though playing radio noise (929 KAT FM) at someone from 8:30 in the morning till 8:30 in the evening could fairly be described as torture, the city administrator didn’t think so.  Neither did another adult, but consider the source: one was born with a silver spoon in her big mouth, and feels entitled. She is there watching her grandkid get a swim lesson for a half hour and doesn’t think 12 hours of KATFM is a problem! Duh!

Actually some of the kids working over there were far kinder than city officials and their good sense turned out to my best defense. (Thanks, kids.)

The constabulary was the reverse of help: they showed up the only night the pool was closed all summer (for the fair), a week after the houseguests were gone and told me I couldn’t have a fire in my yard unless I sitting by it. (My woodpile is back of the garage.)

Is gaslighting a legitimate police tactic?  We’ll see when we talk to the Park Board.