“Speak or forever hold your peace”
April 30th, 2006
© Kevin Dayhoff
As of May 3rd, 2006, my latest Westminster Eagle column is up on the Eagle website.
It is more commentary on the Westminster City budget… Recently the City of Westminster (City) announced a proposed budget of $27,334,713.00 for Fiscal Year 2006 - 2007, (FY 2007)...
The proposed budget includes a 6-cent increase in the City’s property tax. This will raise the property tax from 40 cents to 46 cents – a fifteen percent increase, probably the largest in the City’s history.
The Westminster Eagle does not use permalinks, but the current link is.
At a later date, you may need to go to “archives:” Local news archives, to find the piece. Once that page comes up, scroll down and push the radio button by my name.
Below please find the unedited version of my column – the album cut, long version. It contains a great deal more on the subject of the history of taxation in Carroll County. This version is called:
“Speak or forever hold your peace.”
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Perhaps one of the most difficult tasks for any local government is preparation of the annual budget. There just simply is never enough money to go around to do all the things everyone wants to do.
Walking that fine line of balance between an appropriate amount of taxation and government spending has never been easy and in an era of increased demands for service in the face of finite resources, it is easy to trip up and fall.
Property taxes in one form, shape or another have been with us in Maryland since colonial days. And issues concerning taxation have always contentious.
“From the founding of the colony in 1634 to the confiscation of Lord Baltimore's property in 1781, including the period from 1689 to 1715 when Maryland was ruled by Royal governors, the Lords Baltimore collected an annual tax on the land amounting at first to 2 shillings per hundred acres, and then later to 4 shillings per hundred acres…” (Clarence Gould, The Land System in Maryland 1720-1765)
Even before there was a Carroll County, Carroll Countians have never tolerated big government and have always agitated for the lowest taxation rate possible. Perhaps we get it honest. The gentleman for whom the county is named for, Charles Carroll,
In the late 1750s when Catholics in Maryland were faced with a double tax on their property to pay for defense against the French and Indians… Charles Carroll of Annapolis became so angry that he declared he would go "anywhere so long as there be freedom…" (“A brief history of the origins and functions of the Department of Assessments and Taxation.” Drafted by Karen A. Hare, 12 April 2002. Edited and expanded by Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, 13 May 2002 and Ann C. Van Devanter, ed. "Anywhere So Long As There Be Freedom:” Charles Carroll of Carrollton… The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1975)
“… the first successful taxpayer’s revolt in Maryland occurred in 1765 when Parliament attempted to impose a stamp tax on all the colonies to help pay for the French and Indian War. Cries of 'no taxation without representation,' were heard throughout the land. Led in Maryland by the prominent attorney Daniel Dulany who wrote a persuasive pamphlet on the evils of the tax, and by Jonas Green the publisher of the Maryland Gazette, the colonists burned the tax collector in effigy on a gallows erected near the Liberty Tree on what is today St. John's College campus, and tore down his office.” (“A Brief History…” Hare and Papenfuse)
Thankfully, the budget process has become increasingly transparent and open. The days of byzantine intrigue and no meaningful citizen recourse are hopefully gone, never to return.
This year, Carroll County has completely opened up its budget process with televised hearings and a series of community meetings and everyone has benefited. Additionally, out of respect for the Internet – information age, the proposed budget is on the county’s Web-site.
Such open disclosure and public accountability wasn’t always so. Dr. Jesse Glass reports in his 2004 book, “Carroll County Newspaper Wars,” after the election of 1856, “ a new opportunity presented itself to embarrass the Democratic party.”
Dr. Glass writes, “From 1848 to 1854, Jacob Myerly, the Clerk of the County Commissioners of Carroll County, and Commissioners Jonathan Dorsey (both Democrats) issues a series of spurious County certificates in order to pay off interests on debts incurred by the creation of the County, as well as the building of the County Alms House (now the Carroll County Farm Museum). The false certificates were “sold” to Myerly, Dorsey… Once investigated by State’s Attorney Charles W. Webster, and threatened with legal action, Myerly and Dorsey gave back the money they collected as holders of these certificates, thus admitting their guilt.”
In the 1840s and 1850s, Carroll County’s finances were a wreck. Folklore has it that the county government teetered on insolvency and almost failed before it could get on its feet. This was all to the delight of the many who were against the county being formed to begin with.
Carroll County had the misfortune to be formed at the beginning of the “Panic of 1837, one of many, but arguably one of the worst recessions (depressions) of the 1800s. Carol Lee laments in her book, “Legacy of the Land,” that by 1843, local newspapers “carried an average of twenty insolvency notices per weekly issue…”
In the late 1840s, the roads and transportation structure in Carroll County was essentially in a state of total collapse. Ms. Lee writes, “The county commissioners could do little about road conditions… After 1846, more tax revenue was coming in and road building advanced.”
In March 1791, when George Washington was president, the federal government passed “The Whiskey Tax.”
In a published account by noted local historian Jay Graybeal, “Col. Joshua Gist and the Whiskey Boys” – “farmers were morally outraged by the tax and they led the open revolt in the summer of 1794… public orations and heated discussions led to open warfare on July 16, 1794. Rebels attacked the homes of tax collectors and destroyed the stills of farmers who had obeyed the tax law.”
The rebellion reached Westminster in the summer of 1794.
Miss Mary B. Shellman picks up the story here: "A mob of men, known as the "Whiskey Boys", marched into Westminster, and set up what they called a "Liberty Pole". Becoming alarmed, and knowing the personal bravery of Col. [Joshua] Gist … was sent for, and responded immediately. Riding into town with a drawn sword in his hand, he ordered the pole to be cut down, and dismounting, he placed one foot upon it, and stood there until the pole was cut in pieces, the whiskey boys leaving quietly while it was being done."
The tax was subsequently repealed by President Thomas Jefferson after the rebellion, mostly concentrated in southwestern Pennsylvania, was suppressed. Mr. Graybeal revealed, “Gen. Washington summoned more than 12,000 men and charged Gen. Henry "Lighthorse Harry" Lee with ending the revolt in Pennsylvania. Federal troops arrested 150 rebels on November 13, 1794 and effectively put an end to organized resistance.”
Several years later, when Westminster was first incorporated in 1818, the acts of incorporation were very short and to the point.
Section 5 of “An Act to incorporate Westminster, in Frederick County. Lib. TH. No. 6, fol. 341 - That the three adjoining towns, now called and known by the names of Westminster, New London, and Winter's Addition to Westminster, shall for ever hereafter be called and known by the name of Westminster,” read:
“AND BE IT ENACTED, That the said commissioners shall have full power and authority to enact and pass all laws and ordinances to preserve the health of the town, prevent and remove nuisances; to impose and appropriate fines, penalties and forfeitures, for the breach of their by-laws or ordinances; to lay and collect taxes for opening and extending the back and necessary cross alleys of the said town, provided that the said taxes shall not exceed twenty cents on every hundred dollars worth of taxable property in any one year, which they may collect as county taxes are collected, by such persons as the burgess may see fit to appoint; all ordinances and by-laws to be signed by the burgess.”
Over a hundred years after the Whiskey Rebellion, Westminster experienced a period of unprecedented growth. The incredible gains in commercial and industrial tax base, public infrastructure and quality of life proceeded in spite of the worst depression of the 1800s, the Panic of 1893. One of the reasons can be found in the city’s first directory published on January 1, 1889 – low taxes. “The county tax rate is fifty cents on the $100, the lowest of any county in the State, and the municipal rate is but twenty cents on the $100, five of which are for water.”
Fast forward to the present. After several years of a depressed economy, when tax revenues for Westminster actually decreased in at least one year and the state balanced its ailing budget on the backs of local government, our city government recently announced a budget that included a 6-cent tax increase. Roads need repair, and there continues to be increased demands for services in the face of rapidly escalating costs.
Most importantly, city employees have gone for too many years without an appropriate adjustment in their pay and benefits. Westminster has one of the finest municipal public works, water and wastewater treatment, and police departments in the state. However, now more than ever, they need our support. Fortunately, this budget year is witnessing, a surge in income tax and property tax revenue.
The budget is still excruciatingly tight and our elected officials have no doubt worked hard to trim the budget as best as possible. However, they need our help. It is important that citizens get involved. There is no need to be angry like Charles Carroll or have “Liberty Pole” demonstrations. Get in touch with your elected officials today. Please be friendly, positive and constructive.
After all, our elected officials, who are struggling with their responsibilities, are our friends and neighbors.
Now is the time to “speak or forever hold your peace.”
The history of that anachronistic phrase in a wedding ceremony is clouded in mystery. But perhaps it evolved from a time when most marriages were arranged. According to some old notes, without attribution, “The bride's father had to provide a dowry. If the father had not fulfilled his part of the bargain, that proclamation was an opportune moment for the groom's family to speak up before it was too late.”
In light of the “arranged” marriage that Westminster citizens has with Westminster elected officials - the actionable phrase is “speak up before it is too late.”
Whatever, the City of Westminster ultimately decides; we have to pay the dowry – err, bill.
The City of Westminster is asking residents what they think of the proposed budget for the new year - and its proposed tax rate increase of 15 percent.
My opinion on this matter can be found in The Winchester Report at The Westminster Eagle’s Web site, www.thewestminstereagle.com. Those are my thoughts - where are yours? Let us know what you think by writing to The Westminster Eagle at thewestminstereagle@patuxent.com.
Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.
E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org
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