Meet the Kellers - SOLdotna's Tax Protest organizers

Bill and Carol Keller were two of the organizers of the April 15 tax protesters at the SOLdotna Y this past Wednesday.

Bill's a disabled veteran with a prosthetic leg and he never fails to mention his disability at any given opportunity. He did so at the Kenai/SOLdotna Chamber of Commerce meeting yesterday that featured Mark Begich.

What Bill doesn't mention is that his missing leg is the result of falling off of his roof. It has nothing to do with his time in the service. Word is that he was poaching a cable TV feed when he fell off.

Anyway, Bill moans and groans a lot about paying taxes - that fits with the tax protest thing. A while back he wrote a letter to the editor complaining about a 37 cent monthly SOLdotna City tax on his phone that he felt was unfair because he lives outside of SOLdonta, but has a city POB.

But Bill likes to leave out details. Like that he has a river-front home and property on the K-Beach side worth over $1,700,000 and just downriver from SOLdotna. Man, aren't you glad there's a sewage treatment plant in SOLdotna - you would literally be SOL otherwise. And don't you drive SOLdotna streets when you pick up your mail? 37 cents a month is a small price to pay for those services.

But I digress.

At the chamber meeting, one man told Sen. Mark that he wished he could get his veteran medical treatments in Anchorage, rather than fly down to Seattle -it would cost the government less and make it more convenient. Then Keller told Mark that he was happy that the VA flew him to Seattle for treatment - a chance to have a bit of a vacation on the gov't tab.

What a scam Keller is - wanting more of our tax dollars to treat something caused by his own activities.

And then he has the nerve to protest taxes.

He has nearly 2 million dollars of untaxed property value on the Kenai and the guy is screaming as if he is a pauper.

Soak the bastard is what I say.

Bill went on to accuse Senator Mark of voting for the stimulus without reading the bill. Senator Mark responded that he actually DID read the bill and the revision, made notes on both and then could even explain the difference between the two. And then Mark explained that there's a good chance the stimulus bill could even generate a 6% rate of return.

And Bill and Carol shut up and sat down.

As one SOLdotnan said - It was bee-yoo-tee-ful

Just Mucking Around

What is it about some Alaskans - while we are not too far removed from pioneer days (and certainly there are still those places around here that don't resemble suburban America), we've become the biggest whiners in the world.

Take the roads here on the Kenai Peninsula. More than a few developers here have put in subdivisions that have roads that don't meet borough, state, or federal standards. By cutting in these substandard roads, they can sell the lots on the cheap. Come break-up, the roads become quagmires of bus-swallowing mud pits.

People who buy property in these subdivisions either know what they were getting into, or are just plain dumb. It doesn't really matter as most of them start calling Sound Off and/or complain that the borough should come in and upgrade their roads for free. Oh, yeah, these are the same folks who complain that their property taxes (the lowest in the nation) are too high.

Read the ADN's article from April 22

So, the article quotes Jerry Remington who wonders why the borough doesn't fix his road - after all, he claims to pay $90 a year in highway taxes.

Dude, how much road will $90 pave?!? Ummm...maybe about a half a foot. So, what you are really asking is that the rest of us subsidize your property purchase by paying for your road to be improved? When you sell it, do we get a return on our investment?

Oh, and Jerry, are you over 65? If so, you don't pay a dime of property taxes - so what's this BS about road taxes!?!. Maybe you hang out at Chilkoot Charlie's in Anchorage where the motto is: We cheat the other guys and pass the savings on to you!

And why do those who profess to be independent and anti-government and all of that seem to have the biggest sense of entitlement?

Hey, don't you know that you're SOL in SOLdotna?