High Taxes. Zero Growth. Coincidence?

The Kansas City Star has an article today (link via Combest), on the small town of Farley in Platte County. There are some classic nuggets in this article. I wonder whether the civic leaders of Farley are able to see the possible connections here (emphasis added):

Farley has little chance of increasing revenue in the foreseeable future because its growth rate has been small. The village is at its maximum allowable property tax levy and has no businesses that could generate sales-tax revenue.

I wonder if there could possibly be a connection? To the credit of Farley’s civic leaders, at least they gave consideration to the dramatic and usually overlooked possibility of disincorporation. But sometimes you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t:

Kincaid said she had discussed the situation with representatives from Mack’s Creek, a community near Lake of the Ozarks. There, she said, the community spent money on an election required to unincorporate, but the measure failed, increasing the community’s financial burden.

It’s true: Elections aren’t free to hold. If you try to disincorporate, and fail, you just owe even more money. I guess the moral of the story is to convince the voters that if you are in a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging.