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Petticoat Mafia Gone; Progressive Taxation In

By Jeff “Mario” Smith, Guerilla Reporter

November 26, In the Year of our Lord 2006

Not one to read the LEFTington Heraldo-Liberal (Herald-Leader), I found interest in an article my wife brought to my attention. It is about politics in Benham, Kentucky. The story focuses on six retired ladies from Benham who have been running the town for a decade or more. They have been nicknamed the “Petticoat Mafia” by some of the locals. It appears to be an affectionate nickname, though.

What struck my interest is the wealth of accomplishments these ladies achieved, not through progressive taxation, but through creativity, hard work, sacrifice, and good old American grit. Instead of replacing these ladies with new progressive politician breed of leaders, as has recently happened, they should be celebrated and their methods emulated nationwide.

According to the H-L article, these ladies moved this little town forward with fund-raisers, you know, bake sales and the like, not the never-ending tax machine. They purchased a $145,000.00 fire truck for the fire department, new police cars, new garbage and dump trucks, started Benham’s first city water line, and built two city parks. On top of that, they started a thrift store with all proceeds going to the city budget. Our LEFTington Council would sneer at such creative and hard-work methods.

As a taxpayer, I have been quite upset with the “tax and spend” climate that seems to take over at all levels of government. Locally, we witness the relentless “revenue generation” methods of our LFUCG Council and Mayor’s office and are constantly hit with more taxes to pay for this or for that, many things totally outside the proper role of government.

When you work hard for something, you nurture it, you care for it, and you treat it responsibly; you take good care of it. When I was growing up, I witnessed my friends, who had bicycles given to them, real nice bikes, abuse those bicycles. I took good care of mine, having paid for it through revenue I worked to acquire by delivering the local newspaper. Yes, I have to admit it. I started out in life by working for the liberal media. Shhh!

When funds are generated through fleecing others, the things purchased with those funds, whether they be hardware or services, don’t get the nurturing that they would get had they been accumulated through hard work and grit. This is so easy to see in the disparity between government run entities which are inefficient because all they have to do is raise taxes whenever they feel the need, and private industry which must generate a profit for shareholders in order to survive.

LEFTington’s merged city-county government recently threw over $3,000,000.00 of our money in the poop-shoot trying to attack our well-run privately-owned water utility in order to seize its profits for their latest spending schemes. It is as if it will never end. These politicians are drunk with power and eat our money like peanuts at a bar.

In Benham, the talk is of merging with two other communities, Lynch and Cumberland; too bad. If only I could somehow eloquently express to the voters in these communities the reality of merged governments and the loss of Liberty we have experienced with that here in LEFTington.

Bigger is not better, it is only bigger and with bigger comes bigger problems that take bigger money to fix. After all, most governments today create problems and then fleece the taxpayers further to repair said problems. That’s 75% of what governments do. Witness the talk of raising taxes yet again in LEFTington to pay for sewer and storm drainage problems ignored by past administrations and exacerbated by overdevelopment whereby developers take the money and run leaving taxpayers to pay for infrastructure problems caused by said development.

Betty Howard, the motherly “don” of the Petticoat Mafia, who served three terms as Mayor, did not get reelected this time. It appears she is being drowned out in favor of those who wish to merge the three towns and their “services”. I will let the reader define the word “service” here.

Howard said, "There are business people and politicians who think the larger group can get a bigger chunk of grants.” There you go. Follow the carrot, more money to play with, and in this case fleeced tax dollars that come back to the community through state and federal grants, which is nothing more than taking your money from you, spending ¾ of it, and then giving ¼ of it back to you if you promise to do things as directed from afar, on high. Give me a break!

Another original member of the Petticoat Gals, Councilwoman Lacey Griffey, said, "We're not politicians -- that's our problem.” Well said ma’am, and as the politicians take over, watch the corruption and tax and spend atmosphere become the norm. It happens every time.

“When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” –Proverbs 29:2 (KJV)

Benham's 'Petticoat Mafia' out of office

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/16099961.htm

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