The following program is sponsored by What's Right, What's Left Ministries and is responsible for its content. Portions of the following program may be pre-recorded. I am Pastor Ernie Sanders, the voice of the Christian Resistance. Stay tuned. My radio broadcast, What's Right, What's Left, is coming up right now.
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Thank you. This is What's Right, What's Left with Pastor Ernie Sanders. Good evening and welcome to another edition of What's Right, What's Left.
This is the voice of the Christian Resistance. I got to turn my mic down a little bit because boy that was awful loud. And here we were adjusting the mics so we got things turned up high. And tonight my producer is the stout-hearted reliable style. Hey style.
Hey Pastor, how are you? Ready to roll. And in studio here tonight my two guests is Leonard Gilbert and Brian Massey.
Thank you so much for the invite. Definitely. And look forward to it.
They're champions for the people when it comes to taxes, especially property taxes. And that's what we're going to talk about tonight. And we want to be right on this, right? So what do we do?
We go right to God's word, the Bible. 100%. That is the absolute authority. And that's what we're going to take off on tonight because it's a horrible thing to see elderly people my age that have worked their whole life, paid off their mortgage. And thought, well, at least I don't have to have a place to live. And then they find out that when they couldn't pay their property taxes because these property taxes have a way of going up higher and higher. They never go down. Right.
They never go down. And it seems like your property is valued higher and higher until you go to sell it. And then you find out that it's not nearly worth what it's been appraised at by the tax people. So we're going to take a look at them and see what God's word, the Bible says. And starting tonight in Ezra chapter 7, verse 21. And I, even I, Artaxerxes, the king, do make a decree to all the treasures which are beyond the river, that whosoever Ezra, the priest and the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, excuse me, shall require of you, it be done speedily until 100 talents of silver and 100 measures of wheat, into hundreds of baths of wine into 100 baths of oil and salt without prescribing how much whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven.
Let it be diligently done for the house of God of heaven. For why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons? Also, we certify you that touching any of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the porters, nothings or ministers of the house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute or custom upon them. And Ezra, after the wisdom of the God, that is the nine hand, sent magistrates and judges which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of the God, and teach you them that know them not. So here, what the king has said simply is, we do not irritate or we do not agitate or we do not mock the God of heaven by taxing his children. So he's making that very clear. And of course, see, we're living in a society today that people have gotten so far away from the word of God, they're clueless. They actually... A godly society.
Right. And so, let's take a look at what the Lord Jesus said, because some people say, well, that's in the Old Testament, okay? Let's take a look at what the Lord Jesus said, because he dealt a lot with taxes.
And I want to go over to Matthew, in Matthew chapter 17, starting with verse 24. And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter and said, does not your master pay tribute, which is tax. And he said, yes. And when he was coming to the house, Jesus prevented him saying... Now, so here, why do you think Peter said yes when he asked him, does your master pay the temple tax?
Does he pay the tax? And Peter automatically said yes. Well, because that was the laws, okay? And they know that actually those laws, you know, came, supposedly came from God, right?
But Jesus said he prevents them. In other words, he said, wait a minute, Peter, hold it. He said, what thinkest thou, Simon, of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute, of their own children or of strangers? So he's asking Peter, who do the kings tax?
Do they tax, you know, it's kind of like a tariff in a sense. And he says, well, strangers, he doesn't tax his own. Peter said unto him, of strangers, and Jesus said unto him, then are the children free? In other words, Peter, who's the king? Who's the king of kings? Who's the lord of lords, right? And Peter's thinking, hey, hey, you're the king, right?
And I'm yours. And Peter says, notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, in other words, so now Peter had already gone ahead and he had made this pledge to his master. I remember my boy, when he was little, said, my dad will pay for that. He did something.
And so here, when he said that, that made me, you know, it was my son that made that statement, and so he put me responsible to pay his debt. And so here now, so notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, cast in a hook, take up the fish that first cometh up, and when thou has opened his mouth, thou shall find a piece of money to take that and give it to them for me and for thee. So now, okay, so what really took place there? Peter, what did Peter do for a living? Fisherman.
He's a fisherman. So Jesus says, go work, go to work, and take your wages, that since you have made this, okay, that you find it'll be in the fish's mouth, okay, God's going to provide, God provides your wages, and then go pay this commitment that you made for the two of us. Now, he had told him, we don't owe this, but you had committed this, so now since you've committed this, we have to make it real. And so the point that he was making was, his people didn't owe any taxes. Let's go over here to, this one's a little bit more complicated here in Matthew chapter 22, tempting of the Pharisees and the Herodians here. So now, you know, the Pharisees and the Herodians, they hated each other, they didn't, they really didn't like each other, and you know, the reason why is they were in competition of taxing the same people, taking, you know, one way and the other, the other, and getting the people's money, going after the people's money. What were they doing with the people's money? What were the people paying for? Well, they were telling them, you owe this to the upkeep of the temple, and you need to pay our salaries.
Yeah. And so, the whole Herodians... That was the government at the time, then. Well, for the Jews, the government was Rome. Yeah, Rome was the government. But the Herodians, Herod and Herodians were, Rome appointed Herod, so they were, they had to pay both. Harry got his cut, and then Rome got their cut. Everybody made out except for the people, okay? And now here, you had the Pharisees, which were the religious leaders, and they're saying, look, you owe it to us to keep us, to pay our wages, because we're the temple. Yeah. Okay, so we're your religious leaders.
So, everybody's getting paid except for the people that are working and earning the money. And so, then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. So here now, the Pharisees, these were their lawyers, they were going to engage the Lord Jesus in a battle of wits. They would soon find out that they came unharmed, right?
Mm-hmm. And so they sent unto him their disciples, with the Herodians saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teacheth the way of God in truth. Neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the persons of men.
Well, they actually told the truth there, right? Tell us, therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
Okay, so the tribute's a tax. But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, you hypocrites? First of all, see, they had this idea, the idea he was supposed to be put in a position where he couldn't give a right answer. If he was to say, Yes, go ahead and pay tribute, who did Caesar claim to be? Claim to be God. So then that would have been a violation of the first commandment.
Yes, sir. And Herod could have had him stowed unto the Herodians, the Jewish law, okay? But if he said, No, don't pay it, then that could have been insurrection, then Caesar could have had him killed under their law, okay? And he said, Why tempt you me, you hypocrites? Show me the tribute money. And they brought in, they showed him a penny. And here, that's a denarius. Here's what he said, and he saith unto them, Whose is the image and superscription on there? And they said unto him, Caesar's.
Now, listen carefully to what he's saying, okay? Listen carefully, because who are these people? These are the lawmakers. These are their legislators. These are their lawmakers. They're judicial.
Yep. They say unto him, Caesar's, then he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. Now, remember, under the law, according to the law, and so what does the law teach? Well, the law teaches that the earth and the fullness thereof, everything on it, belong to God. That's it.
You see? Now, what else does it teach? You have to go back to Genesis chapter 9 verses 5 through 7. God gives man, verses 1 through 4, dominion of all the environment. There you go. He gives man dominion, right?
That's the word I like. And then he tells them, here, here's what you're going to do. You're going to govern for me, and here's what you're going to use to govern. You're going to govern by my laws, my statutes, my commandments, my covenants, so on. But then he says, but when you get to verse 5 through 7, man I've kept for myself, dominion of man, and my image belongs to me.
I've kept for myself. Anyone who destroys my image and transgresses my dominion, they have to forfeit their own life. That's where you've got the statute of the death penalty. So now, he's telling them here, okay, therefore, unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. But under the law, everything, including Caesar, belongs to God. There you go. It all belongs to God.
Major point. So now, here, when they'd heard these words, they marveled, and here, they marveled, they were amazed, but they were also taken back. Because, see, when they have to go to the people, and the people say, what did Jesus say?
When you said, should he pay those taxes? They wanted to know. He said, well, he said, render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and render unto God what belongs to God. And they said, well, you're the lawyers under the law, what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. That's where they lived. So it all belongs to God. There you go. Including Caesar himself. That's right. So therefore, the taxes go to, what, tithes, and not to Caesar.
Not to tribute. And then it goes to the house of God. And boy, I'm going to tell you, those people weren't the house of God, going back to where we just read over there. You know, it was all the men, and when we read that in 17th, from the age of 18 up, had to pay so much for Temple. But not God's children. That was the house of God. Alrighty, we're going to stop there.
Do you guys have any commentary on that? Well, what's interesting, and this is very important for people to realize, even Caesar had a boss, whether or not he recognized it or not. He knows enough.
So that foundation was laid. One of the things I think we miss also, Brother Ernie, is that he's not denouncing government. And that's what people are saying, well, there shouldn't be any government. Because now you have to go and look at Romans 13, and what he's saying is that a government can exist, but it has to be a legitimate government. Let's go to Romans 13, because you just made a very good point, because Romans 13 is one of the most misrepresented, spun, perverted passages of all of Scripture. And I've done a lot, I taught biblical law for years, and Romans 13, in that King James Bible, it says exactly, it means exactly, exactly what it says.
Let's go. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, but there is no power but of God. The powers that are ordained of God. Now, some of the New Age perversions of the Bible have changed that. Let every soul be subject to government.
They've changed that. So, the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, there is no power. In other words, the final authority has got, as the old saying, the buck stops here. For there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained.
Here you go, you've got this big word here. What do you think that means, to be ordained of God? That means, that's what he has put in his word, that is a covenantal relationship, that's not optional. So you're set aside to do the will of God. There you go.
So he goes on to say, whosoever therefore resistest the power, resistest the ordinance of God. So here you go. We're taking it back, now we're taking a look at what legitimate government is. If it's legitimate government, it's got to be in compliance with what God has ordained.
There you go. God gave us the divine institution of human government in Genesis chapter 9, when he gave us the new covenant. He gave us five points.
Do you remember those five points? The first was to whom it was given. Genesis 9 verses 10, 11, 12, and 15 and 16. To all mankind, for perpetual generations, an everlasting covenant to all living creatures, which spanned all dispensations.
Then point two was what? The intent of divine human government was that man was to govern for God. Man was to govern for God, not for man, for God.
We're talking about legitimate, real government. Now, the third point, and this is the most important, this is the most important. The entire purpose of divine human government, the entire purpose was to preserve the image of God, that being man. Verses 5 through 7, this is where we get the statute of the death penalty. Where God says that whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood must be shed. Because he transgressed God's image.
God kept dominion of man for himself. So he goes on to say here, now listen to this, because we're talking again about being legitimate, what's real. For rulers are not a terror to good works. That's right. Now here, so then how do you define that? Well, then you have to go back to the fourth point, okay? And the fourth point of divine human government was the means by which man was to govern for God.
That's it. And if you go to 119 Psalm, it tells you God's laws, God's statutes, God's ordinance, God's covenants, God's precepts. This is what you use to govern for God. This is what he tells you.
So that's the fourth point. For rulers are not a terror to good works, so good belongs to all those, but to the evil. Wilt thou not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. So the power goes back every time to God, God, God, God.
That's it. For he is the minister of God for thee, for good, for again, to be in total compliance with God's laws, God's statutes, God's covenants, God's ordinance. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. So evil is in disobedience to all of those. Wherefore, you must need to be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience, Satan. Now, there's a very good point there.
So why do you do that? Well, you want to be subject. You know, when you were a kid, you wanted to obey your parents, not just so you wouldn't get a licking, but because you loved your parents and you wanted to make them happy.
Not as often as we should have done. Yeah, you're right. You wanted to make them happy, you know. And so then he says, for this cause pay you tribute. Now, listen.
Here you go. Listen. Also, for they are God's ministers attending continually upon everything. Render, therefore, to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due.
There you go. Okay, custom to whom custom is due, fear to whom fear and honor to whom honor is due. None of that is due to a corrupt government. None of that is due to government that is not in compliance with what God has given us again.
So how close are we today to those, to that revealed word of God in our current government? We're not even close. No, not even close.
Not even close. See, the vast majority of people are clueless. They don't know this, okay? That's right, brother Sanders. But if we're an ungodly society, we can never achieve that. Well, that's true, but you see, you and I, our call is to obey God. So he said, here it is.
This is what you do, right? And so that's what we have to do. We have to be in compliance with God's word. We understand what he commands. See, at the end of the day, God is not going to be standing before the government. The government is going to be before God. Yes. And we then, if you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Leonard, you'll see that we then will be the judge of the government, okay, of the world. So we're going to stop there.
We'll be right back after this. Which is not provided for the purpose of rendering any legal advice or professional service. In other words, this song is totally frivolous and without merit. Not. Because I never worked in Puerto Rico, nor lived in Washington, D.C. I wasn't under their jurisdiction and there was nothing they could do to me.
Since I've never, ever been an employee of the federal government, I ain't liable for the subject to know I've never owed you 100 cent. But let me tell you, it's dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. They'll trample down your rights as they break inside your home.
They'll terrorize your sweet bride as they put the hard lean on. Yes, it's dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. Now it didn't take very long before they garnished all my hard-earned pay. Then they repossessed my pickup truck and had it towed away. And then they up and seized my bank accounts as they auctioned off my family farm.
And to keep me from proving my innocence, well, they shackled me in iron. Now let me tell you, it's dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. They'll trample down your rights as they break inside your home.
They'll terrorize your sweet bride as they put the hard lean on. Yes, it's dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. Now the truth about the IRS code is that it's fraudulently misapplied because the legal definition of taxpayer is exclusively derived. So all you agents of the evil IRS are in reality a bunch of thieves who are working for the foreign bankers to bring America to her knees. So listen up, you international banksters and all you traitorous congressmen and all you low-down lying, even cheating lawyers better leave the country while you can.
Because when the people find out the truth about how the income tax is based on fraud, they're going to rise up all across this nation. They're going to route you vipers out, my God. To use the famous words of Andy Jackson, we're going to route you vipers out, my God. And then it's going to be dangerous because we're right and the government is wrong. We'll trample down their rights as we break inside their homes. We'll terrorize their sweet brides as we put the hard lean on. Yes, we're dangerous because we're right and the government is wrong. We're dangerous because we're right and the government is wrong.
With explicit reservation of all rights, without prejudice, per UCC 1-207. That was good. I love it. That was my old friend, my dear friend Carl Clang. That fella was the most talented guy. I mean, you talk about a talented, talented fella.
He died young and I sure do miss him. Anyhow, well, now I've got to make a fast announcement here and that is this. You guys know about Liberty Camp, right? Oh, yes.
Well, it is good. Liberty Camp is, you know what it's done, it's giving children this summer. What a vacation for kids to go to a camp and learn actual history, Bible-based, Bible-based.
And that's what we have. We have two Liberty Camps. Lake County, Liberty Camp, and that's going to be July 7th through the 11th. And then Jug County, July 21st through the 25th. I've gone to these camps.
They're just tremendous. But here, it starts out on Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Time travelers entering the second, now these are grades 2 through 7. They have this thing called time travelers and, of course, they get dressed up in the old Revolutionary War, Revolutionary costumes. And Indians, you have the Indians and it's great. Seventy dollars for that entire thing for a child. That's all. I mean, it's really worth it. And then you have the youth Patriots, 8th grade through college age.
It only costs you $25. They come out and they're a part of this. They work. They work with the youngsters, yes.
Yeah, it is. So here you see the tyranny of the British rule, the American Revolution, the founding citizens, sacrifices, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the great republic of America. And then you have the learning activities, oppressive taxation. Boy, we know about that. Then they reenact the Boston Tea Party.
They write it with Quill and Ink. The many men race, the colonial survival skills, and then they decode spy messages. And then they meet historical heroes, Sam Adams and the Swamp Fox himself, Delaware Indians, returning soldiers, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and many more. So, folks, it's time to register now.
Registration is on right now for more information. And this is really a great thing to put your kids in this camp. The kids love it. They want to come back every year now. But what they need right now, they're looking for some adults to help out.
They've got plenty of children, plenty of kids, but they can take more. But they need some adults to come and join them right now, too. Now, if you're one of those adults, if you feel like getting dressed up like Ben Franklin and... Or Betsy Ross. Well, make sure if you get dressed like Betsy, you're a woman. Yeah. Yes. I hate to see one of you guys dressed like Betsy.
That'd be ugly. No, I just was a pastor the last time I was participating, so I had my role filled. Complete. No confusion. Okay. All right. Here's what you do. Call Linda if you want more information at 440-725-2064.
440-725-2064. Okay. Fellas, you are out. Tell the folks what you're doing. You're getting petitions signed. We're going to give people, let those people that are paid for their homes, keep their homes, belongs to them, right? Yes, sir. Go ahead, Leonard.
Do you want to start? First of all, can I make a comment a little bit about the whole role of government? I want this to be heard by everyone. When I vet a candidate, the first question I ask him is, what is the role of government? Very clear.
But if they can't give me a clear answer, that tells me we got the wrong guy in that position. Now, it's basically when you look at the word of scripture or look at the law here, it says basically government is legitimized, but it only exists for one reason. That's to promote law and order.
End of story. It didn't say nothing about property ownership. It didn't say anything about that. They always run to this thing about the separation of church and state. I told them, yes, there is a separation, but it's a functional separation. In other words, the church can excommunicate, but the civil has the authority to actually put people to death.
So that's why their functionality is different. But you cannot separate religion from government because now you'd be taking God out of the picture. So that's not allowed. So I try to help people understand when somebody comes to this village, you have to be neutral. Neutrality doesn't exist anywhere in life. So the question is, even when I look at that constitution, I have to look at that in reference to a biblical world view.
And if it does not fit, I'm sorry. We have to make some changes. And that's what people can't accept.
Well, that constitution is there to guarantee us in the Bill of Rights the freedom of religion, and government is there to protect those freedoms. Very simple. Law and order. That's it. That's law and order.
That's reality. But you see, things got all twisted backwards under this Biden regime you had. Going after Christians, I mean, they had targeted Christians. Pro-lifers, in fact, there's more coming out right now under the FBI, under Chris Wray.
Chris Wray is laying low. He's hiding out because now they're going after him. Because they found out that he was really supposed to come down hard on Christians.
Yes. I think they were zeroing in on the Roman Catholics is what they were doing. Well, Roman Catholics, but they were zeroing in hard on all pro-lifers. They were putting 70-year-old grandmothers in jail for simply praying in front of a bloody abortion mill.
That's correct. They were also going after home schoolers. They wanted to stop all home schoolers.
And those are all Christians, and all of those you find Christians. So now, here, we were talking about earlier, to see people pay 30 years on a mortgage, pay it off, and say, well, at least now, in my old age, at least I have a place to live. If I'm only on Social Security or whatever, but they don't. They think they own their home, but they don't. Unfortunately, they're merely renters from the government, is what we're telling people, when we're in front of them as a group. We're trying to make them aware, because what they have, they've become, as Leonard says, the abnormal has become the normal, and we've sort of just accepted that the government is not serving us. We're serving the government, and it's upside down. But that's because we've become pretty complacent. We want to believe the comforting lies and not the unpleasant truths. And that is, with freedom and liberty, it comes from responsibility, too. You are not just saying, well, I'm going to give my life over to the government. The government solves the problem.
We've fallen into that trap. And unfortunately, if people keep voting for these property tax levies, they are funding their own demise. It won't stop in the state of Ohio, I'm talking about, because Leonard and I and many others are now, we have this movement in the state of Ohio where we are trying to get it on the ballot, where we are going to abolish property taxes in the state of Ohio.
They've done it in other states, and we can do it here. Yeah, the legislators are concerned, because what we're being told, they realize if we get the 413,000 signatures to get it on the ballot, that it will pass. And that has got them extremely concerned, because what they're trying to do in Ohio, they're trying to eliminate the income tax. Governor DeWine has said that he believes our constitutional amendment to abolish the property taxes is a very foolish, idiotic idea. He says because the school funding is with income tax and property tax. So if they're trying to eliminate the property tax, what that really means is that's going to push the burden further onto the property tax onto the homeowners.
And it's not sustainable, simply not sustainable. 60 to 70% of all of our property taxes are going for public education. And we asked, when Leonard said what's the role of government, we asked also should government be involved in public education? When I asked that question, I immediately get the response, well, it says in the Ohio Constitution that the state shall fund the education. It doesn't say anything about property taxes funding the public education.
It says it just makes a statement that the state should fund it, whether that's an income tax or a consumption or a sales tax, but it doesn't say a property tax. And unfortunately, the state legislators are no longer listening to the average citizen. Well, they haven't for a long, long time. We have, Leonard and I actually, we have spoken before the Ways and Means Committee. We've spoken before a couple times to this council or to the committee on property tax review and reform. We tried to, we rented a room at the Capitol building, 50 bucks for an hour, and we invited the legislators to join us so that we could address, redress our grievances against the government.
The only thing was the legislative aides, not one legislator. We've tried to go to our Jamie Calendar, Dan Troy and Jerry Sereno. We want to talk to them about and express our concerns. When I met with Sereno for about five minutes and he said, well, Brian, if a senior cannot afford the property taxes, now is the best time for them to sell their home and move into an apartment. That's dangerous type thinking as far as I'm concerned, because property ownership is the foundation of our freedom and liberty.
It allows families to get out of poverty by transferring wealth from one generation to the next. People say to us, well, Brian, how are you going to fund the fire department, police department, roads and bridges locally? It's funny, they talk to Leonard and I and they say, you guys, before we sign your petition, you've got to explain to us how you're going to replace the property taxes dollar for dollar.
First thing we say is, well, wait a minute, who says we're going to replace it dollar for dollar? Maybe somebody should be looking at, is the government, the public sector, is outgrowing the private sector's ability to pay for the services? Do we need 611 school districts in the state of Ohio? Who is responsible for the education of the children?
It's the family. That's who's responsible, not the state. But we're getting all sorts of pushback and as far as police and fire and roads and bridges, we say all they have to do is send us a bill.
Those fees are like insurance policies to us. If we don't pay those, nothing gets tied to our house because they will foreclose on your house. If you miss three payments, six months payments of your property taxes, it will be turned over to file a tax lien on your property.
It goes to a third party. If you don't satisfy that debt within the first year, they can foreclose on your home. Not just that, but for senior citizens that have paid off, and today the prices of homes have gone up in Ohio. That home that the mortgage has paid free and clear, that's collateral. If a situation comes up where you need to raise some money real fast, maybe your furnace goes out or your well goes dry.
You've got to replace your roof. And you don't have that money, but you can go to the bank and they'll be glad to give you a loan for interest, but you have that collateral there to do it. They take away your collateral. You don't have that collateral when you sell your house when they go to an apartment. Ambassador, they're also taxing us on unrealized gains.
If I built that house for $100,000, it's now worth $300,000. They're taxing us. They're taxing us on the $300,000. They haven't sold it. They haven't sold it, but you wouldn't put up with that if you had stock if they were charging you tax on unrealized gains on your stock. That's something the Democrats wanted to do, but what's the difference with the house?
Why am I paying tax on something? What they're doing now in the state of Ohio, they've split the land values with the house values, and now what they're doing is they're focusing on the land values. Certainly in Lake County, they've done this, where you can't really debate them on the land values. We've had some property values right along the lake. It's now $750,000 per acre on the land value.
And so now, how do we fight that? Because the attitude of the county auditors and the third-party appraisal companies is that here's the number, the citizen has to prove them wrong. So we can spend $400, $500, $600 on an appraisal, but the county still doesn't have to accept that. What we're finding happening is they throw you a bone and say, well, if they've raised your valuation over $100,000, they'll reduce it $20,000.
So you still have an increase in the value of your property, $80,000, and it's just not sustainable. And unfortunately, what has happened, certainly in Lake County, the accumulation of cash by all of these taxing authorities, millions upon millions of dollars, and I've tried to tell commissioners, I said, you cannot continue to suck the lifeblood out of the community. The money has got to be in the hands of the taxpayers so that they spend the money in the community. But no one is really thinking about the taxpayers, not at the local level, because they all have their bases covered, they've got their jobs, and now some schools have as much as 100% in their rainy day funds.
Oh yeah, huge. And they don't think that's the problem. Well, you know, the other thing, too, is what I said, where would we make that up for the schools? Like you said, it's up to the state. The schools have the ability to collect an income tax right now.
Oh yeah, they do. There are some schools, I understand, west of 71 of the state, western part of the state, they use the income tax to the east of the 71. The eastern part of the state is mostly property taxes. But in Lake County, we've got nine school districts. Do we need nine school districts? No, you could probably get by with two.
Probably get by with one. Yeah, that's the thing we were talking about. One thing that's missing in the discussion about property taxes is, first of all, I just want to let you know, every state has a property tax. None of them are functioning without it. Now they shift where it goes, but they still have the same issues that we do. That's why Michigan's at it. Who else is with us?
North Dakota, but Texas is also... So this thing is becoming a national movement now. But what's happening is, we have over 924 cities. We've got 1300 townships now.
Listen to that carefully. 1300 townships, 924 cities. And we've got 600 schools. Now, my first question is, when you look at, let's say the property tax is gone now. Okay, now that whole system that we're using is gone. Huge dollar savings.
Okay. Then you've got to start asking the question, why do we have to have so many different entities? And that creates more local government structure and more waste. So what we're saying is that we've got to take a hard look at streamlining these services, because now that's another tax reduction. So my challenge is to say, we don't have to replace that 22 million.
We should be lowering that number, because when you lower taxes, the government actually makes out better. Well, they do, but here's the thing, too. And you'll find that with all these government agencies, they'll tell you, if they get to the end of the year and they have a surplus money, they say, we've got to find something to spend this on, because if we don't find something to spend this on, then they'll cut it. We won't get as much, you know, 100%, instead of giving it back to the people it belongs to. Or instead of saying, okay, we don't need this much next year, you know, we'll take less. They never do that. They never do that. The citizens, you know, have some responsibility in this, though.
Oh, yes. And from the standpoint that what Leonard and I have found is that there is a segment of the population that do not correlate going to the ballot box, voting for a tax levy, and seeing an increase in their property tax, believe it or not. There's a segment of the population that do not even see their tax bill, because they've got a mortgage in Lake County. They send it directly to the mortgage company. They never send a copy of their tax bill to the citizen. I ask why, and they say, well, it costs us too much money. So all they see is they get a $200 bump in their monthly payment from the bank, and the bank says, well, the reason for that is your property tax has gone up. But they never see who is getting what on their tax bill. That's what they do to me in Summit, too. So that's an issue.
Also, people have been so indoctrinated. They say, well, Brian, you've got to pay for the school levies because you've got to do it for the children. And I say to them, have you ever seen the proficiency scores in the state of Ohio? Yes. But the other thing that they say, believe it or not, you've got to vote for the school levies because you've got to keep your property values high.
Why? It's a mindset that, boy, my property values are going up. It's a lack of education on the whole property.
The property tax system is overly complex. There are many legislators that don't understand it, and I know from trying to educate the people on what's inside and outside millage, but there's a huge deception being played on the people, too, at the legislator's level. Inside millage is supposed to be non-voted. There's a maximum of 10 mills, which is 1%. Outside millage is voted on by the taxpayers.
Here's where they're deceiving us, though. They introduced House Bill 920, which reduces the millage rate when the property values go up, but it can only go down to a 20-mill floor. Inside millage and outside millage equals 20 mills, which is 2%. That outside millage is treated like inside millage. So if your property values go up 10% for the schools, your taxes will go up 10% for the schools. And I state that if it is treated like inside millage, it's inside millage. Joint vocational schools is another deception. Two and a half percent on the outside millage voted on by the taxpayers. Unfortunately, it is not subject to House Bill 920.
Therefore, the outside millage is treated like inside millage. That's a deception by the legislators. People don't understand it.
Well, the other thing, too, is simply this. When they tell you, we raise your property taxes due to the value of your home. So they say, here's what your home is appraised at now, $500,000. So then you go to sell it. Nobody wants to pay $500,000.
No. They want to pay you $400,000. But wait a minute. I'm paying taxes. This isn't appraised.
That definitely will start happening because people are going to take a look at the property tax. Well, I don't want to pay that. So I'm going to pay you less. Was that something I heard? No. It wasn't like what happened last night.
He was just giving you a tap back. By the way, did you know a style that what happened last night went out over the airways? Did it really? Yeah. I didn't know if I heard about it today. Wow.
I didn't hear anything in the studio. Yeah. He wanted to know who was that deep voice. But anyhow, that was kind of strange. Go ahead and finish your thought. The thought being that people have asked us, they said, Brian, will your group, will your movement, will you back down if the legislators will reduce the property taxes on schools?
And we thought about it and we said no. We'll never give up nor will we compromise because we're telling people to sign this petition because we want to eliminate the property taxes. Any tax causing a citizen to become homeless is immoral. Right. It's absolutely. And it's not a lawful tax. There you go. That's it. It's not a lawful tax.
A man's house is supposed to be his castle. And that's the one place that God has given them there to say, okay, we'll let you live here as long as you're going to pay us forever. But back to your Bible lesson before, though. If our government, if the officials are ungodly people, they're never going to live by the revealed word of God. And they're not going to operate that way. But we as citizens, if we know the revealed word of God, we're going to push our legislators in that direction. Well, that's the key, Brian. This is the role of the church.
Absolutely. If you look at Proverbs 29, it tells you when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when a wicked man rules, guess what?
The people groan. Now, as a church, he uses these means to bring out his elect, people that are God-fearing people. Those people should be trained to go into that field so we can start to take dominion, which people don't like to hear that word, but that's what we should be doing. That's why the church is so important in this whole process.
Well, again, from Genesis to Revelation, resistance to tyranny is obedience to God, failure to resist tyranny is always disobedient. We'll be back right after this with more. Don't go away. Thank you. A whole lot more. I think we'll open the phone lines and take some calls.
Yeah, absolutely. We'll be right back. Mail your donations to What's Right, What's Left Ministries, 14781 Sperry Road, Newberry, Ohio, 44065. If you missed part of tonight's program, you can check out the podcast at thewordcleveland.com.
Thewordcleveland.com. Once again, thank you for listening and supporting What's Right, What's Left Ministries, the voice of the Christian resistance. Stay tuned. The second hour is coming up next.
