Thinking Missouri...

The ankle bone's connected to the leg bone. The leg bone's connected to the thigh bone. What's this got to do with Ohio?

A timely reminder from two fronts on how actions in one part of the country have such a big impact on another part of the country, and how flood waters and environmental laws spilling inside one set of borders is only part of a bigger picture.

"The Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District began increasing reservoir water releases today after actions taken in the flood-stricken lower Ohio River region were successful in reducing water levels.

Water levels on the Monongahela, Allegheny, Beaver and Ohio rivers will begin to rise gradually today and the public should expect higher than normal flows for weeks depending on the forecasted weather. Anyone going in or near the water should consult river and weather conditions and show caution during these high flow times.

The Corps plans to lower water levels at its 16 upper Ohio River Basin reservoirs to normal summer pools by the Memorial Day weekend. Current high water levels are impacting some recreation areas."

Read carefully, it just stands to reason all those submerged fields, towns, cities and farmlands along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers would have an impact at some point up the Ohio. It is so bad in Missouri that levees were blown up, flooding hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, rather than washing out towns, villages and cities under threat.

What we send downstream eventually winds up in New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico or, at worst, overflowing all over Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. Hence the complicated systems of dams and locks to control these mighty fluid highways so people and commerce flourish instead of seeing their future flushed downriver every time there's a hard rain.

Really not much different when it comes to laws and tax policies states find themselves coming to terms with these days.

Michigan's GOP is under fire for approval of a new law that would tie that state's environmental laws to federal standards. Supporters say it would essentially provide a level playing field for businesses navigating EPA requirements, setting a common bar between state and feds. Critics say it would take away from unique needs in Michigan the federal rules don't address, in a state with more freshwater coastline than any other.

The same argument goes for tax laws. AkronNewsNow's Chris Keppler is working on a story detailing some of the very impressive and exciting economic prospects coming from local colleges and Universities. He says those folks in charge of developing our intellectual capital point out the muscle making those products isn't here in Ohio, or even the United States. Tax policies have a lot to do with it: starting up a business in the Buckeye State means less in the pockets of the risk-takers than in some other states.

That "less in the pocket" may sound like they're all greedy bastards, keeping profit for their own personal use. But most job creation comes from small business just like these start-ups, and it's those companies providing the true engine for the recovery fueled by their imagination, their hard work, and their smarts. Those profits make them rich; they also pay for the people, products and services that make up economic prosperity.

We have advance warning this spring that river levels will be high because of concern over what all the water will do to our neighbors, friends and fellow Americans down river. The same applies to the river of the economy, except it's the stream of cash that matters.

In Ohio's case, it would be nice to figure out how to keep more of it here rather than continuing to send it flowing there.

What Pork Really Looks Like

Want your very own view of making sausage? It's all here at Stimulus Watch, a great web tool designed to give the folks ultimately paying the bills (that'd be you and me) a birds-eye view of just what Uncle Sam, Cousin Ted and Nephew Don want to do with all those billions.

My first visit went to the site for Akron projects, and it's a whopper -- more than a billion dollars worth of gimme put together by the City of Akron. It also makes very real what is often a powerful position for politicians: that all that spending is pork.

You might think so as well until you see your street, your school or your idea of what government should pay for on the list, and one the list of dozens and dozens of projects odds are you'll see plenty that ought to get a piece of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid pie. After all, who would complain about getting federal money to fix the crumbling roads and bridges we're seeing in the Akron area now that the snow and ice are off the highways?

You get the same look-see at what Mayor Healy in Canton says his city needs; there's even a separate page for Stow, almost five million dollars worth to finish Seasons Road and pave the road to Bulldog Prosperity. It is disappointing we don't see Hudson belly up to the bar here as well...one must imagine how much federal recovery dollars would help build new off-site parking for the boutiques on the Square.

Sorry, can't help but being cynical even while recognizing all this money would certainly do plenty of good. The problem is the majority of folks who are as cynical as I am living in Texas, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Virginia and the rest of the 49 states other than Ohio (see what the state is asking for here to get a gander of the 847 projects the Strickland Administration forwarded Washington ) will take a look at these projects and wonder just why their hard-earned tax dollars need to go to a state with a $55 billion dollar budget. Then again, those of us in Ohio will think the same thing about a dime spent in Texas, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Virginia and the rest of the 49 states other than Ohio.

That's the point: our "must have" list looks like a chunk of Bob Evans' most popular product to anyone on the outside, while anything outside Ohio's borders looks like it's all pork to those of us between the Ohio River and Lake Erie.

The interesting thing about pork in 2009, however, is we get to ride along and even report on our own what we think is good, what we think is bad, even what we think is B.S. (that's not short for bachelor of science...) and needs to be exposed. We still have to pay the bill for what Washington says we need but don't necessarily want. The difference between life under Bill and W. is with tools like Stimulus Watch we can get a better look in the Obama butcher shop on how the sausage is made -- including how much pork is really in the mix.

StimulusWatch.org is the creation of a couple George Mason University types with help from web professionals; they claim no affiliation with Presidents, Governors, County or City officials and even provide a Google Excel site to grab the database yourself and sort to your heart's content.

I Just Became An Obama Fan

With all the hubub going on in Washington -- and the tendency of those within the Beltway to lose sight of life for those of us outside the Beltway -- I figured there was plenty of business as usual with the cabinet appointments of public figure after public figure who couldn't quite grasp how to pay their taxes. Mr. Obama made the right call today.

Here's the AP Video report from AkronNewsNow on President Obama and what the pundits are calling major mistakes.

For my money, and by extension yours as well since it is on our dime these people get to play in the political sandbox, the President did what few politicians are ever ready to do: took responsibility, admitted it was a snafu and noted America should expect better when it comes to the leading by example of our appointed and elected officials.

If only the other elected tax bums, including U.S. Representative Charlie Rangel of New York, would learn from Mr. Obama accepting accountability and even former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle stepping down.

Daschle really is one of the decent fellows the Heartland has ever sent to Washington, but in his time since losing re-election the cash came rolling in because of the learning he'd been able to do under the Dome. Any one of us would have done the same thing: use our experience to benefit our lifestyle and that of our family. There's no difference for any consultant...they had to learn on someone's dime at some point, they just have the knowledge (their clients hope) now that allows them to cash in. Why would we really expect different from former public officials?

I was leaning toward giving Daschle the benefit of a doubt when the story first broke but then more details made it seem more...silly, and stupid. Not paying taxes on use of a car seems like such a little thing but these are the men and women who make a living plumbing tax loopholes, creating tax policy, and expecting the rest of us to toe the line and pay our fair share. Kinda tough to make that argument when the preacher is such a sinner to begin with...something I think Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will have to wrestle with the first time his IRS has to crack the whip.

In the meantime...Bravo Barack for doing what no politician these days seems to grasp the American people really hunger for: admitting a screwup, paying more than lip service to what we think, and standing up like a man instead of a politician.

Property Tax Time Bomb

Heading down the stretch with a month and a week left to go in 2008 and I'm thinking the big story of the year won't be historic elections, perceived weaknesses in Mayor Plusquellic's political armour or even the crime blotter's sensational trials such as the Bobby Cutts, Jr. case.

2008 should be remembered as the start of America's major come-to-Jesus money moment.

In the past 90 days we've basically seen wealth in the wealthiest nation on earth take deep slices, with the market more than 40% down and confidence in our major institutions -- banking and homegrown automotive -- in the toilet. Banks won't lend to banks and Americans have clearly shown American cars are their top choice for wheels.

Today President-elect Obama unveiled his economic team, but there are still many, many questions to be answered on what to do. The existing Congress -- the same body that returns in power in 2009 -- seems impotent when it comes to forcing the outgoing Treasury Secretary to do what he said he was going to do with $700 billion dollars in bailout money. The housing bubble burst continues, banks say they aren't even sure what their complicated portfolios are really worth, charges are traded over backroom decisions that kill one institution to benefit another and the country looks divided over whether clueless Detroit CEO's (not only management but also union bosses) should be given a chance to manage their way out of this mess they've created.

But we aren't seeing the worst, yet. Just today, Ohio's Association of Realtors noted Ohio's average housing values (the total amount of residential real estate sold divided by the number of units) declined in value by 7.4% through October 2008 when compared to the same point last year. The Ohio average declined from $150,800 to $139,571. In real dollars, that amount actually declined by 19.7%, from $17 billion a year ago to $13.7 billion. OAR's member Realtors sold nearly a fifth less real estate and while that stinks for real estate agents living on a commission, it doesn't bode well for the local governments living off property taxes either.

Long-range thinkers are taking hard looks at how property taxes are figured -- an odd mix of economic formulas and the art of appraisers in determining what your house is worth. So much of government is tied to your property and this hits you whether you own or rent; after all, how do you think landlords pay their property taxes? When property values decline, those locked-in tax percentages are impacted, too. It hits schools (toss aside the talk of how its unconstitutional; the Ohio Supreme Court didn't provide a penalty for still using property taxes so the DeRolph decision remains toothless) as well as social service agencies, libraries, zoos, police, fire, ambulance and even road repairs and improvements.

Taxpayers are likely to take a dim view of appraisals that charged more in property taxes when values were going up but what about when those values are heading south -- does the County start reducing tax bills in comparison wholesale when those housing values drop just like your 401k portfolio? Government is used to adjusting up, not down, but with the value of what we own continuing to decline thanks to market conditions it can't control do tax collectors have little choice but to respond in kind?

In turn, will we see a rush to the ballot box by every agency receiving a penny of property tax revenue to help shore up those revenues? School districts have long known just how hard it is to go to the well again and again and again. ,With the property tax values of entire communities taking a hit, that whirlpool drags even more quasi-governmental groups into the swirl.

Smoking Hot Over Washington

Washington is surfing for more ways to squeeze more dollars out of us? That's not news...but when it comes to raiding my humidor it's time for action!

Disclaimer: I smoke an occasional cigar.

My wife absolutely hates it and won't let me in the house with one lit, barely one cut and ready to go. She did buy me a very nice humidor for Christmas but filling it up with stogies is up to me and she never misses the chance to remind me it is a dirty, filthy, awful habit bound to lead to mouth cancer, lip cancer, lung cancer and just-plain-cancer.

But ever since the Silva twins and I started puffing away on then-much-cheaper cigars during basement poker games while my reformed-smoker father looked the other way, it has been one of those lifestyle habits I cherish. I've given up just about every other hurtful habit but relaxing on the deck with burning rope after a satisfying steak is safe harbor, one of the last vestiges this aging scoundrel is still permitted.

Until now, that is, when the folks at Thompson Cigar forwarded this article from TampaBay.com alerting cigar aficionados to the threat of politicians in Washington -- hell, those are the guys who CREATED the cigar-smoke filled room image of power and prestige -- raising the ridiculously low cigar tax from five cents a puro to as high as ten bucks.

$10 apiece? What are we smoking, gasoline?

It would be a tax hike of more than two thousand percent...a 2000% increase, something even oil companies cannot image. But to the eager-to-pillage political class in Washington, damn the torpedo, let's roll on those rolled stogies!

Thompson Cigar and just about everyone else associated with the pleasure of firing up a piece of rope these days express outrage and demand cigar fans call their U.S. Senators and demand this foolishness be abandoned. Light up those phone lines, stop the $10 tax!

Here's what will happen, though: the $10 max tax is really a brilliant political move, because who in their right mind really wants to defend just five cents on each $20 cigar? Raising any tax is always easier when you aim high and settle for mid-range, and that's what will happen here.

Cigar taxes will be pushed to the normal range (although still not as much as what cigarette smokers pay), health advocates will feel more satisfied they've been able to carve out a chunk of big tobacco to fund their favorite boondoggle, and cigar smokers will still pay for their favorite stogies while apologizing to their wives, family and lovers and promising the smoke will stay outside.