Please Sir, I Want Some More

The Chief Counsel to Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero, John Kurtzman, doesn't like taxes.

Strike that.

He doesn't like some taxes.

Some taxes are good, like the Stark County Sales Tax, which generates money to run the government office where he works.

Thanks in part to John Kurtzman's campaigning, Stark County residents are now paying a higher sales tax.

"John L. Kurtzman, chief counsel for the Stark County Prosecutor’s Office, told (Tuscarawas Township) trustees that Sheriff Timothy Swanson will hire back deputies if the tax passes and that some would be assigned to road patrol."

"Kurtzman, like many other county officials, encouraged trustees to pass a resolution of support. He highlighted several points regarding the tax, including that 30 percent of it will be paid by visitors to the county. The tax issue will appear as Issue 29 on the ballot" (The Independent, October 12, 2011).

And some taxes are bad, like the proposed income tax credit reduction proposed twice over the past year by Massillon Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry.

As a Massillon resident who works in Canton, John Kurtzman pays income tax to the City of Canton, where he works, and no income tax to the City of Massillon, where he lives.

He receives a 100% tax credit, meaning his Massillon income taxes are deducted by the amount he pays in Canton income taxes by 100%.

Most cities have a tax credit for residents residing in that particular city, but working in another city, but a 100% tax credit is unusually high, and extremely rare.

Catazaro-Perry's last attempt to have Massillon residents who work in another city to pay a portion of Massillon's income tax was a proposed 35% tax credit reduction.

If passed, this meant that folks like John Kurtzman would only have to pay 35% of the City's 1.8% income tax rate.

This would have been about 2/3 of one percent.

This amount was still unacceptable to John Kurtzman.

At the August 20th meeting of Massillon City Council, John Kurtzman was unable to attend, but Stark County Auditor employee John Oates, aka "Oatey," read a letter from John Kurtzman expressing his opposition to paying any City income tax what so ever because -

"it’s a penalty on the unfortunate bread winners who are forced to work outside the city"

Fast forward to the present.

At this past Monday's City Council meeting, City Council Finance Chair Donnie Peters proposed to raise the City's income tax rate .3% to 2.1%.

A raise in the City's income tax must be approved by a vote of the people.

More interesting, Peters also proposed eliminating the 100% tax credit on his .3% increase.

Peters, who vehemently opposed Catazaro-Perry's plans to generate more revenue via a tax credit reduction, was now proposing a tax credit reduction of his own.

Why the change?

Did Peters have a philosophical change in his views on taxation?

Isn't he concerned that John Kurtzman will be back to oppose this tax credit reduction because it is a "penalty" on the "unfortunate bread winners who are forced to work outside the city?"

The answer is no.

No one will complain about Donnie Peters' proposed tax reduction.

No one will point out Peters' hypocrisy for proposing a tax credit reduction in December, while chiding Catazaro-Perry for doing the same just four months prior.

Because the reasons are, of course, extraordinary...