We're Mad As Hell, and We're Not Going to Take This Anymore!

According to today's Independent, 100 people showed up to the Massillon City Council meeting last night, and not one person spoke in favor of our Mayor for Life's proposal to annex the Tuslaw Local School District into the City of Massillon. This would include Tuslaw High School, middle school, and the new elementary school. The primary effect of this proposed annexation would be to allow the mayor to grab about $120,000 in income tax from Tuslaw teachers, administrators, and support personnel.

Not one person spoke in favor of this annexation. Not one person. The crowd was mad as hell, and wasn't going to take this anymore.

Want to bet?

The Massillon Review received an email inquiry from a faithful reader who argued that "Massillon City Council had the power to stop the mayor's land grab." Massillon City Council? This city council? This merry band of rubber stamps who approve absolutely EVERYTHING the mayor proposes? This city council that pays the mortgage for a private hotel, and this city council that bought a restaurant, with no business plan, which is now essentially a glorified hot dog stand, is going to tell their master, our Mayor for Life, that he can't annex the Tuslaw schools?

Nope. Ain't gonna happen. In theory, the city council could stop this. In reality, they won't. The mayor has the undying support of rubber stamps like Paul Manson, David Hersher, Ron Mang, David McCune, Larry Slagle, and usually Donnie Peters. Peters seems to be waffling on this one, but he usually falls in line at the end. That's at least five votes, possibly six, maybe more, to approve this land grab.

"Tuscarawas Township Trustee Jerry Hollinger called the move, which would essentially create a taxing district out of the school, "taxation without representation." He said it was unfair to put the city's economic woes on the backs of Tuslaw teachers" (The Independent, August 17, 2010).

Taxation without representation?

That's the wrong argument to make to Massillon City Council.

Let's see what Massillon's answer to Paul Revere, Republican Councilman Donnie Peters, thinks about taxation without representation. This is what Peters had to say when Massillon successfully annexed the R.G. Drage school earlier this year, in response to school teachers complaining about "taxation without representation."

Donnie Peters believes the city's income tax "comes with the territory," and he's tired of hearing arguments about "taxation without representation" (The Independent, April 13, 2010).

The 100 or so people who attended the Massillon City Council meeting to speak out against this land grab may have been mad as Hell, but they are going to take it. They wasted a perfectly good Summer's evening trying to convince the rubber stamps on city council to oppose their Mayor for Life. It will not happen. Again, this battle was over before the first shot was fired.