[Niagara Hub is pleased to have created a format for presentation, discussion, promotion and at times, challenge of items pertaining to our community. Gerald Skirlin, proprietor of the Lavinia Porter House is a colorful personality who has on many occasions challenged the status quo. His recent submittal to Niagara hub is printed unedited here below. NiagaraHub neither endorses nor denounces the content. The views presented are not necessarily those of Niagara Hub and we trust our readership enjoys the items presented.]
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Niagara Falls City Council Chairman Andrew Toouma stated in his article in the Niagara Gazette,
“A reassessment in the Falls makes it fair for all property owners.”
Jun 22, 2016
Toumba earns $110,000 + dollars per year.
Is it fair a person who benefits so from taxpayer dollars who for the most part would be little affected by his tax payments rising, who gets full health benefits for his numerous family through the Board of Education, plus the Opt Out payments for health insurance from the council benefits to claim “Fairness” ?
A Zero Sum Game is not as he stated it to be:
a zero sum, sums all adjustments to reflect no additional gains are summed up in the total.
So is it an honest statement to claim “fairness” seeing his statement reflects a reassessment will not bring in further tax enrichments for the city?
Zero Sum Game: definition interpretation
If you have three and I have one,
you loose one I gain one,
or I loose one you gain one, = 0
the sum of the total always equals zero.
Since I lost my one, I LOOSE and you gain, but the justification is that since there were only four units of measurement in the game, in the end there are still four units, that is gains summed are zero because no other sums were added to the game, and no one can claim more than what was originally bargained with.
Stating the reassessment would create a “fairness” in the distribution of assessment equity, does not ease the tax burden on persons in lower wage earnings brackets, who may take pride in their properties, and have them assessed higher to ease the burden on Touma, Dyster, Grandennetti, and others who have little worry about their incomes diminishing.
A Zero Sum Game is
In the latter case, I loose my one unit, you end up with four units, and since no other units were added to the sum, therefore a zero sums to the total of all wealth considered in the equation.
The sums possessed at the begining of the game are redistributed, shifted around to apply to winners or loosers
A Zero Sum Game demands someone has to gain some has to loose, or that all remain the same as before.
Is it fair for the “poor” to loose what little they have in lesser property assessments to support those who for the most part are prejudiced against the underclass as Touma, Dyster and others have demonstrated?
Seeing the City Council works so diligently to keep the underclass from from expressing their opinions about how they are treated and prosecuted maliciously by department heads ( code enforcement ) and beaucratic policies, ( NFC ) exclusion zones in prime realestate zones ( Buffalo Ave. Heritage Zone) it is no wonder why opposition is expressed.
But Touma has come out with his ” ( Personal Attacks )” spiel, which CHILLS POLITICAL SPEECH and imposes fear upon political participants. As stated in numerous Supreme Court Opinions, “the majority of free speech violations are by those upon city councils and local boards and committees who, because of their personal taste, cannot tolerate political opposition.”
By
Gerald Skrlin
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