The camel's nose is already under the tent

This Memorial Day I especially honor the memory of Captain William S. Davis, III, KIA (killed in action) 19Sep66, South Vietnam, Capt. Harlow K. Halbower, KIA, 2Jan66, near Saigon, South Vietnam, Capt. Lyn D. Oberdier, KIA 5May68, South Vietnam and Captain Thomas G. Derrickson, II, Missing in Action, North Vietnam. All have their names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington DC. All were my friends, young men that I bonded with during four tough years at the new Air Force Academy in Colorado. We were three hundred and six enrolled in the first class in 1955 and four years later only two hundred and seven of us were left standing.

Tomorrow, (as you read this) Ann and I will be attending the 50th graduation of the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs. We will be joining with my older and wiser fellow Class of '59 grads to honor the institution and the graduating Class of 2008. The four named above are among the true heroes of the Vietnam War and their memories shine brightly in the hearts of we who are still alive and able to make the milestone event. It will be an honor for me to listen as President George W. Bush delivers the commencement address and then watch the Thunderbirds work their magical air show.

Oh no! I fear that the camel's nose is under the tent! The ancient Arab adage refers to the nomad who lives in a tent and who will violently punish his beast of burden for seeking shelter inside with him and his family. You see the Bedouin knows that if the camel's nose is allowed under, the whole stinking body will follow and the tent will become uninhabitable.

A group of local landowners brought suit against the State of Nebraska objecting to the Legislature levying a property tax for the purpose of paying for irrigation water to send on down the Republican River to our benevolent neighbor Kansas. District Judge Paul D. Merritt Jr. recently ruled that the lawsuit had merit in a very limited sense but that the remainder of the Legislature's effort, LB701, to quench their never- ending thirst for more tax money to spend is OK. Never mind that the people had already agreed that property tax was not to be used for state purposes.

A little bit of history here. (You know they should teach this stuff in school!) Until the late 1960s, Nebraska had no state income tax and no state sales tax. Nirvana right?!

Well the burden of financing schools, plus local government, plus state government solely on the backs of property owners was getting a little too much. We elected a wise governor, ( http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/thye-tiernan.html ) Norbert Theodore Tiemann, 1967-71, who had the wonderful idea that by financing state government with sales and income tax and allowing only property tax to be used for local government and education would more equitably share the tax burden.

The bargain was made when the people voted to change the Nebraska State Constitution creating a small income tax levy and a few cents sales tax to support only state government. The property tax levies also dropped significantly and everybody was happy.

However in real short order the tax spenders recognized that there was great potential for new revenue and every government budget grew by leaps and bounds. The change was not lost on individual voting tax payers who quickly discovered that in the aggregate they had just been hit with a huge increase in the total amount of taxes they had to pay each year. Governor Tiemann's first name was soon forgotten and when "Tax Tiemann" ran for a second term he was soundly defeated and sent to the dust bin of history.

Now we have a governor whose last name, Heineman, kinda rhymes with Tiemann and needing additional tax revenue figures to again share property tax revenue for the state purposes. The state thinking that paying for river water to send on to Kansas is a good thing has raided the property tax revenue source to meet what can only be seen as a state government responsibility.

Never mind that the people back in the 1960s in agreeing to a "small" combined income and sales tax to support state government made property tax off limits. Bad mistake! I am afraid the camel is already under the tent up to his ears and pretty soon we will see his shoulders and then the hump and back legs too! More taxes indeed!

That it the way I see it.