The Double-Digit Lie

It's an accepted article of faith among the Longristas that we've been suffering double-digit tax increases in Maplewood for years under the previous city manager, mayors and city councils. When they campaigned door to door, talking about the supposed wreck of Maplewood city finances, you know this is a talking point they harped on to voter after voter. (Sometimes claims like this even made it into written literature, and resulted in hot water for a candidate.) Longrie's sock puppet in our comments has repeated this claim, and went so far as to write it into Wikipedia to make it seem more factual. Specifically, she claimed "double-digit increases over the past five years."

It was easy to prove that this claim about the 2006 budget was false. But it is fair to observe that 2006 is only one year, so this doesn't give us a very big picture, and it certainly doesn't disprove a claim about a five-year span.

Therefore, I went back into the archives and dug up the actual levy data to see what is there. Here are the results: more than a decade of Maplewood's tax levies, with the rate of increase of each year over the previous.

Year	Total Tax Levy	% Increase
1995	$8,572,900	(unknown to me)
1996	$8,572,900	0.00%
1997	$8,984,800	4.80%
1998	$8,987,718	0.03%
1999	$8,986,925	-0.01%
2000	$9,167,607	2.01%
2001	$9,842,953	7.37%
2002	$10,238,175	4.02%
2003	$11,855,546	15.80%
2004	$12,679,422	6.95%
2005	$13,434,640	5.96%
2006	$14,106,370	5.00%
2007	$15,550,340	10.24%

(Sources: draft 2007 budget with the Review article on final cuts from the draft budget for the 2007 figure; 2006 budget summary for the 2006 figure; and the 2005 Annual Financial Report, which on page 152 includes the tax levies back to 1995.)

Looking at the past five years, we see levy increases of 4.02%, 15.8%, 6.95%, 5.96% and 5.0%. By no stretch of reason can you claim that this represents "double digit tax increases over the past five years." There was one double-digit increase in that period. The average increase each year was 7.54%.

As far as holding down taxes, this council is objectively doing a worse job than their predecessors. Only one year in the last five had a higher levy increase. They are increasing the levy by a rate 36% higher than the average increase of this period (10.24% versus 7.54%).

Looking at the even bigger picture, you can see that this city council majority's first budget, in which they get to demonstrate their claims of superior fiscal restraint, increases the levy almost twice as much as the average of the past decade of budgets (10.24% versus 5.19%). Again, only one budget in the past decade (2003) has a higher levy increase.

In other words, they lied about the record in order to get into office; and they lied when they promised to do a better job of holding down taxes — or, if you feel more charitable, they promised something that they and their appointed lapdog, Mr. Copeland, are utterly unqualified to deliver.