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Speeds may slow after 50 gigabytes per month when network is busy. See terms. 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. Coming to you live from Independence, Ohio. Changed our life for the better in many different ways. Heard around the world every Monday through Friday.
Kester Sanders is always years ahead of the rest of the media, telling you exactly what they're covering up. This is what's right, what's left. I tune in every chance I get to hear exactly what's going on with the voice of the Christian resistance. Unabashedly cutting through the rhetoric by exposing the hard topics facing our society and world. A lot of the other news media don't pick up the news items like he does.
And bringing to light the enemies of freedom who are helping to steal your rights, your children, and enslaving you. You really get the truth out. I can tune into your show and hear the unvarnished truth. 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? The Voice of the Christian Resistance on this 12th day of February. twenty twenty six and folks, it's not even Friday, but Strange things are happening here. I got three. tough looking guys come in here.
They're sitting here. And uh They brought a pretty woman with them. She could either be The getaway driver or a hostage. I look in there and you see Stile has got the door blocked, chair up against it, he's He ain't coming out and uh Anyhow, folks, it's so scary that Lisa stopped talking. Oh yeah.
That is scary. That that is scary.
Okay. That the anyhow. These guys are going to confess, they're going to spill the beans, they're going to tell you who they are, and then we'll talk about this radio program. It's going to be a very interesting one tonight. You don't want to miss this one.
So We're going to go from right to right because no left is allowed or ever tolerated in this studio. And so. Hello, hello. My name is John Plechnick, and I'm honored to serve as Lake County Commissioner. I'm the senior member of the board, and they often call me Commissioner No, because I always vote no on taxes.
You can also call me Professor John Plechnick. I'm honored to teach at Cleveland State University, where I specialize in tax, public policy, and estate planning.
So when we talk about property taxes tonight, I've got a lot of opinions to share. All right. Hello, folks. My name is Leonard Gilbert, coming from Mentor, Ohio. And I'm originally a Georgia boy, but I've been here for almost thirty years now.
My mission has been to work with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to abolish this ungodly property tax.
Okay. My name is Brian Massey. I'm uh From Lake County, Ohio. I am one member of the five member group that put together the constitutional amendment to abolish Ohio property taxes in the state of Ohio. They're Leonard Gilbert, myself, Elaine Cross.
And there was Keith Davies and John Morrow, who happens to be the mayor of Timberlake. We were all involved in the in the whole process, and we are moving forward to get this on the b ballot for November 2026. And we look forward to telling people about property taxes and also exposing our legislators and the executive branch Of the state of Ohio. We can do this. We can do this.
We have to, what, July to get the petitions in? July 1st. July 1st. And we need about 600,000.
Well, it's 413,488 to be exact of registered voters. And our goal is 620,000 just to account for those that may be tossed out by the state. We can do this, folks. Let me tell you why. We need to do it because God's Word, the Bible, tells you Property tax are not they're not a lawful tax.
Yeah, the statement we make is any tax causing a citizen to become homeless is immoral. We believe those property taxes are definitely immoral.
Well, let me start in Proverbs chapter thirteen, verse twenty two. A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children. and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
Well, You know, it's kind of hard to leave that when you have sometimes property taxes or state taxes. Yeah, we were just talking here. Professor, tell them what the average federal state tax uh federal tax is.
So under section two thousand one of the internal revenue code, the estate tax is currently forty percent. Federally. There are some state that put on these taxes. that are as high as 55%. There are about a third of the states in the Union that have various forms of death taxes, either estate taxes or inheritance taxes.
Ohio used to have one. I believe 2012, Ohio abolished the estate tax. And I know that Trump wants to to abolish them nationwide. He wants to do away with that. And that that would be a good.
So here, you're absolutely right. I want to jump over to the Old Testament, to Ezra. and very quickly go through some of this. Starting with the verse twenty uh Twenty two. And Ezra chapter seven.
unto a hundred talons of silver, to a hundred measures of wheat, and to a hundred baths of wine, and to a hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescription. 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 that you touch that touching any of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the porters, the Nethelims, the ministers of this house. of God it shall not be lawful to impose toil, tribute, custom, or upon them.
And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is thine heart hand. Set 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 them. that knowed them not. Whosoever wilt not do the law of thy God, and the law of thy king, uh let judgment be executed spe speedily upon him.
whether it be into the death or the banishment or the confiscation of goods or imprisonment.
Now let me ask you this, okay? The Bible says, see, he's talking about here your priests and your Levites. According to the word of God, Is the church, are we not a royal priesthood a priesthood? Livingstones? Oh yes.
Well then Here, is the God of the Old Testament the same as the God of the New Testament? Amen. Always the same. Is he immutable? Does he not never change?
There you go.
Well, let me let me jump over. I want to jump over here too. Another area here. Matthew chapter Seventeen. Verses 24 through 27.
And these are some very misunderstood, very misunderstood passages of Scripture. And so We read And when they were come to Capernaum, They that received the tribute money came to Peter and said, Does not your master pay tribute? He said yes, and when he had come into the house Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom? or tribute of their own children or of the strangers.
meaning aliens, meaning foreigners, okay? And Peter said unto him, Of strangers? And Jesus said unto them, Then are the children free? Notwithstanding, lest we should be we should offend them, go thou to the sea. Cast in a hook, take up thy fish that first cometh up, and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money.
Take that and give it to them for me and thee some. Anyhow, Peter had made a What he had done he had made a commitment For the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus didn't have to honor that commitment, but he since Peter made that. and he's saying here that the taxes are not for God's children. Are we the church?
Are we not the children of Jesus Christ? Amen. Okay. But so here, since he had made that commitment, he told Peter to go down to the sea. What was Peter's profession?
Fisherman. That's right.
So he said, Now go work, Peter. go work and earn and and take the money that you earned that comes up out of the fish's mouth and pay that for you and me, but He did it. as not to offend that, but he didn't he made it clear he didn't know that, huh? But let's go to the next passage, and this is one that's really misunderstood by a lot of people. Going to Matthew chapter twenty two, starting in verse fifteen.
Then when the Pharisees took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God and truth. Neither carest thou for any man, for thou Regardest not the person of men.
Now, let me ask you this. Uh The Pharisees do you know who the Pharisees and Herodians were? The Pharisees were the They they were both the law of the religious leaders and their political The Herodians were half-breed Jewish people. Um under Harrod. Normally they hated each other.
They hated each other because they were in competition to robbing and taking the the money from the people, the the workers, and through their t heavy taxes. But they came together this time because they saw both of them saw Jesus as a threat. people listened to what he was saying and so Here now they decided that they're going to put him in a position Where he cannot give a right answer. And the way you do that As you tell him, well, well, let's let's see here. And Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me of ye hypocrites?
Show me the tribute money.
Well, no, I missed the verse, verse 17. Tell us, therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? In other words, to pay taxes unto Caesar? Or th just was a a tithe?
And Jesus answered, and perceive their wickedness, and say, Tempt me Why tempt you me, you hypocrites? You know, you see. This was tribute money to pay a tithe Uh to Caesar Who did Caesar proclaim to be? God. He proclaimed himself to be God.
Okay, so that would have been a violating the first commandment. No. Then under Herod's law, they could have put stoned Jesus. for violating the First Commandment. But then On the other hand If he was to say no, don't pay.
Tribute, not to Caesar, Then of course Caesar would have had him. you know, put to death for rebellion, okay. And so Jesus says, Show me the tribute money. and they brought into him a penny. Denarius And he said unto him, Is whose is this image and subscription?
And they said unto him, Caesars Then he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar The things that are Caesars and to God the things that are God's. And when they heard these words they were marvelled, and they left and they went their way. In other words, They were Yeah. They were putting up in a bad position. And why?
Well, First of all. Here What does who were these people? They were the lawmakers.
So when Jesus was telling them, under the law, according to the law, that's who he was speaking to. render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.
Well, If you read in Exodus nineteen, verse five, Bible says the earth and the fullness therein, everything on the earth, everything belongs to God. also tells you the same thing in Psalms fifty, verse twelve. Everything on the earth, all things, all people, everything belongs to God. And then in First Corinthians ten, twenty eight, again, it tells you the same thing So here He is telling you under the law, under the law, render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. But if you're going back to It takes you back to the Noate covenant in Genesis chapter 9.
Where here In verses uh he gives you five Five points, and that was the divine institution of human government. In other words, real human government. What we have. Our government today is nothing like what God's government is. And that was the first point was To whom?
Oh. The guy was Making this covenant with, and you find that in Genesis 9, verses 10 through 12, and verse 15 and 16, to all mankind for perpetual generations, for all living beings.
So that Yeah. That wall, okay. uh covered all dispensations all dispensations forever. And then the second point was uh the intent. You ver find that in verses one through four.
Man was to govern for God. Man was to govern for God. The third point is the most important point. Very few people understand this. Verses five through seven And that was where we get the statute of the death penalty today.
And he tells you the entire purpose, verses 3 through 5, the entire purpose of divine human government, real human government, real, was to preserve the image of God, that being man. To preserve the image of God that be in man.
So here. Um That's the entire purpose of divine human government. Then, verses, the next verse, point four. the means. Guys laws, guys, statutes God's covenants, God's promises is how man was to govern.
The fifth point was. All nations and people that would be in compliance with the first four. would be at at peace and not at war with God. And so there's not too many that that today. And so taking that back to here, Caesar was made in the image of God.
Caesar belonged to God.
So these, they had to go back to the people, and the people say, Well, what did he say?
Well, uh, you know, render to God what belongs to God and demand Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
Well, according to the law, you guys are lawyers. What belongs to God and what belongs to man? Yeah. And according to The war? The earth and the fullness therein.
Look. We own nothing. We own nothing. In order to own something, you have to be able to take it with you when you leave this world, right? We're not taking anything with us.
In fact, we don't even own our own salvation. The Bible says that's kept in heaven by God and sealed by God in heaven. And so That's The reality But most of the preachers are afraid to preach that because they're afraid that they're going to go against the 501c3. and somehow get in trouble with they'll tell you they fear God. uh with their lips.
But the vast majority of their actions If you're Caesar Moore.
So, Pastor, I want to jump in on that really narrow point. We've got to give thanks to President Donald J. Trump for pushing back on what has come to be known as the Johnson Amendment. A lot of folks think that there's some constitutional reason or some founding reason for why churches are restrained in being able to speak from the pulpit and express how religion impacts politics. But the truth is, when Lyndon Baines Johnson was a U.S.
Senator, was actually a majority leader, very racist man, he hated the fact that. In particular, Catholic Hispanics would organize against him and his campaign in their churches. He said, Well, I'm going to fix them. I'm going to put an amendment in the budget and the omnibus bill that no one will even see saying that you cannot have politics in church or you lose your 501c3, you lose your nonprofit exemption. And so, to this day, we've had this Johnson amendment on the books.
Now, President Trump has issued an executive order saying that he will not enforce this law, but to this day, we have not gotten Congress to codify that. And so, if we were to have another president who, like Lyndon Baines Johnson, hates the impact of religion on the United States, like Joe Biden, they could very easily overturn that.
So, we have to understand while Trump is protecting churches, if we have a president who doesn't have Christian, Judeo-Christian values, we're going to end up exactly where we started from a racist president who did not want Hispanic Catholics organized. Against his campaign. That had to do with the John Burr Society, too. He was a. He John Birch Society was exposing Lyndon Johnson.
I remember very well. And uh and Johnson what he had to s try to stop that. That's so. But you're absolutely right. It was a boogeyman, right?
As far as I know, that there's never been a case where they actually took away the property. Under that They threatened a lot. And um And uh Under that 501c3, you actually didn't own your property. You actually let the even though you paid it off. uh they allowed you had possession of it and the use of it.
But under that 501c3, if you had a 501c3, if you signed up and volunteered for that. You you admitted. In fact, under the five oh one C three If you read that, obviously you have. He tells you That the state Not Christ is ahead. The state, not Jesus as your head.
The pastor, if you look at that word. For Pastor's agent. And and what if you look the definition up in Black's Law, intercession between the assembly And the state, or a spy against the st uh the people, against the assembly by the state. People don't know that.
So when you signed that, To be a 501c3, you actually say you agreed. That the state, not Christ, was your head. You agreed. And all of these things too. You can't be You can't be a church.
Okay, and a corporation. In fact, the word corpus Corpus what's non living you can't be both the non living creation of the state. And the living bride of Christ. You can't be both. Back to your original point, Commissioner Plechnik here.
When Jesus says, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is God's, he's not saying pay your taxes. To your point, it's often misunderstood. He's not saying the government is king, pay your taxes. Quite the contrary. He recognizes that the Pharisees are putting him in a catch-22.
They're asking an insincere question. Their goal is for Jesus Christ to either encourage rebellion against the government, rebellion against Caesar, which would result in him being put to death, or to say, pay your taxes, at which point the people would abandon him.
So their goal was to either kill him or render him ineffective and unpopular. But you can't fool God, and you can't fool the Son of God. And so Jesus replies in perfect Response That you have to give unto God what is God's, which, as you say, it is everything, everything belongs to God. But to give to Caesar what is Caesar's.
Now, Caesar may make bold claims. The government may make bold and blasphemous claims as to what they own. But he did not tell anyone to rebel. He said, No, give the government everything it's entitled to. The irony is, it is God who is entitled to all things because God created all things, not the government.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And that and and this is where Yeah. Yeah again. God toward the Bible doesn't stutter.
It means what it says, it says what it means. Like you said, well You brought up Romans 13. Let's jump over to Romans 13 for just a minute there. Because Romans 13 says exactly what it means exactly what it says. And I don't have much time left on this, but uh Here Well actually we do because we were really already into the program with When he says, Let every soul be subject to the higher power, for there is no power.
But of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. You know, some of the New Age perversions of the Bible actually changed that word. from powers to government. Yeah.
More so, therefore is Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resistest the ordinance of God. Not the ordinance of man, not the ordinances of man's law, but God's law. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works.
Now How do we define good works? God's laws, God's statutes, God's ordinance, God's covenants. These define good works. 100 and 100. 19th Psalm does it very, very well.
If you read it, it defines it. For the rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and of course that's in compliance with all of this what we just said. and thou shalt have praise of the same.
For he is the minister of God for thee for good If thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, but for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon. and that doeth evil.
Now Wherefore you must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience' sake, meaning. Just like when you were a kid. You obeyed your parents, not just because you were afraid of getting a whipping, but because you loved them, you wanted to please them. And we are to we are to be obedient to the word of God because we want to please God. Mm-hmm.
For this cause pay you tribute also For they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing, okay? render to their dues tribute to whom tribute is due. render to the Dues tribute.
Now if we agreed on a tax, Uh, if we agree on a text, if we say, Okay, now uh Let's see, we want to fund Uh the snow plows. We want to make sure that we or the highways, okay. We agreed to that tax. That's a that would be lawful, okay? Therefore, to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due.
custom to whom custom is due. Fear to whom fear is due in honor to whom honor is due. Boy, that's not people that raise your property taxes up, you know. without ever getting without permission, that just virtually rob and steal from you, okay? Yeah.
Well, we have to remember though that the uh the deceptions played on the state, the way that the property tax laws are written That no one understands. It's so complex. Not even many of the state legislatures don't understand it. That's absolute deception. Mm-hmm.
And I want to take you to one other verse here too. And uh Very quickly. And this applies to kings. Presidents, governors, senators, this applies to everybody. Folks, you see there's one way of finding out the right way.
And that's in Hebrews chapter 13. Mm-hmm. In Hebrews chapter thirteen we read this. Verse seven Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation, okay? In other words, You are to Uh Go to whether you're a president just like they did in the old.
and say what to the pastor, to the Bible, to the the man who knows the word of God And today we have prophets, but today we have fourth-tellers, but not four-tellers.
So, right now, I'm a fourth-teller, I'm actually a prophet, I'm prophesizing. from the word of God. Here, now verse seventeen Obey them that have the rule over you. Submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they must give account That they may do it with joy and not with grief, for this is unprofitable for you. In other words, You go to someone who knows the word of God, someone who's familiar, who's Knows the word of God and asks them what does God's word, the Bible have to say about this.
Yes, sir. And we'll be back right after this. Mm. I had this crazy dream. About some folks who love this country, who all began to dream the same dream.
And when the morning came There arose across this nation people thinking one and the same. And they awoke to find their freedoms and all their liberties had gradually been taken away. And when they realize the danger to their posterity are those patriotic people. Who says? We want this country back.
We ain't just joking, Jack. We want our liberty and our dignity and our freedoms and our rights restored. We want this country back. She's been driven way up back. We're wide awake and we're madder than hell now.
And we ain't gonna take it anymore. No, we're not gonna take it anymore. Remember golden days when the stars and stripes forever symbolized her glorious name? America. But now it's all been changed And when we gaze upon old glory It's hard to fight back feelings of shame Worm it up with lying politicians and greedy corporations who have sold us out time and again.
And we're sick and tired of sending our soldiers off to wars that we were never meant to win. We want this country back. We a Just joking Jack. We want our liberty and our dignity and our freedoms and our rights we stop. We want this country back.
She's been driven way off track We're wide awake and we're madder than hell now And we ain't gonna take it anymore No, we're not gonna take it anymore Now we know our cause is right And our victory's on the way And we won't give up the fight till we hear 200 million say We want this country back. We ain't. You just joking, Jack? We want our liberty. And our dignity.
And our freedoms and our rights restored. This country man. And we ain't taking Any more fan? We're wide awake and we're mad. Than hell now, and we ain't gonna take it anymore.
No, we're not gonna take it anymore. That's right, we're not gonna take it anymore. We said we're not gonna take it anymore. That's right, we're not gonna take it anymore. We said we're not gonna take it anymore.
Some of us haven't been taking it for a long time, we've been pushing back. In fact, the folks that are here with me tonight, they've been pushing back and and Guess what? You're supposed to, because... From Genesis to Revelation. God's word, the Bible, teaches resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.
Folks, failure to resist tyranny is disobedience. That's just. The way it is, right? Right. And so With that, uh we're gonna start right over here.
And and uh Tell us about property tax. Thank you so much, Pastor Sanders. Once again, my name is Commissioner John Plechnik. I'm honored to be here with two of the five who submitted the amendment to abolish property taxes: Leonard Gilbert and former Kirtland Mayor Brian Massey, two amazing leaders here in Ohio. And as I think about resistance, I'm reminded of the most viral clip.
Uh, that we've had on Ohio political news talking about this. We got pretty heated at the Hungarian church, and I said, uh, hitting the table a little bit, the property taxes are too high, and we're not going to take it anymore. The BL bottom line, Pastor, is that this has gone so, so beyond what is acceptable. Way beyond that's why the people are resisting. I mean, if this was just an inconvenience, if it was just unfair, we wouldn't be here.
But the reality is, we're seeing numbers in some counties as high as 15-20% of people behind on their taxes. To say that we are taxing people out of their homes doesn't go far enough. We're literally taxing people out of Ohio. There has to be a change. And to Brian's point, it is immoral for the government.
To be taxing seniors out of their homes, to make homes so expensive that young families can't afford them, and to ultimately destroy the American dream in the heart of it all. To destroy the American dream in Ohio is to destroy this country. This should be the best place on earth to live, work, retire, raise a family, and yet we are taxing people to such a dishonest, to such a greedy extent that young, old, and in between just can't afford it. It is wrong. Yeah, and they don't put the property tax on the ballot, do they?
No, in many ways, in many ways, these are unvoted increases. For example, this last revaluation is what got people talking. And Brian will tell you, folks like he and I saw early on that this was going to be a double-digit increase in value and taxes. But for most folks who are living their lives, who are trying to struggle and get by, they can't look up the Ohio Revised Code. They can't look up how their property value is going to go next year.
But we did see it coming. And we shared with our state reps and senators: look, there is a big problem on the horizon. What are you going to do about it? And Brian can speak for himself, but what I heard back was: oh, John, don't give it two thoughts. People get mad every three years when their properties are revalued.
It raises their taxes without a vote of the people. But after a couple weeks, they get over it. After they pay the bill, they get over it and they go home.
So, all we have to do is keep our heads down, ignore it, ignore the angry emails, and we don't have to do a thing. And I said, folks, this time is different. We're going to have an average 30% value increase in Ohio, which we did. Which translates into a double-digit increase in property taxes. That's not inconvenient.
That's not just unfair. It is absolutely unaffordable. It's extortion. Look, instead of having tax, no taxation without representation, you have extortion. That's what it is.
250 years ago, we started our country on that principle. And yet, when we pushed the British tyrant, King George III out, it seems that Columbus was eager to take his place. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right.
Again, this is Brian Massey. Uh commission. Commissioner Plutchuk is correct. Uh London and I saw this uh Increase in property taxes. It's been going on for 10 years where we have been trying to.
Raise awareness of the people in saying that it's just not sustainable. We tried to Mention to our elected representatives. We wanted a redress of our grievances. We thought if we lived in a constitutional republic or we're a representative democracy, We said, well, let's talk to our representatives and let's see what they can do. They ignored us?
We went to the State House. We s spoke before the House Ways and Means Committee. They ignored us. We spoke before the Committee to Review and Reform Property Taxes. They censored my speech.
We rented a room in the State House, invited all of our representatives to the meeting. Only half a dozen legislative aides, no one more than 35 years of age. And it was that, then we said, well, all we really wanted, we wanted a property tax change so that for seniors. Our our our movement was SOS, SOS, save our seniors. Once you hit sixty five years of age, there's no more property taxes.
They told us very directly there'll be no carve outs for seniors. In fact, if seniors can't afford their property taxes, they should move, they sell their home and Move into an apartment. That will help with the housing shortage, too, in Ohio. I thought that was very cold of our legislators to do that. But what we've also come to realize is that what is really the role of government?
Is the role of government, should it be, in the valuation of properties? Right now in Lake County we paid $1.8 million to a third-party appraiser. That third party appraiser is not accountable to the people. We asked how do you come up with your calculation? They said, I'm sorry, it's all proprietary information.
We can't give you that information.
So I said to our uh officials in Lake County, I said, Now, wait a minute, we're paying Private money to these third party. Um Appraisers and third-party appraisers are not accountable to us. That's That's really what the Boston Tea Party was when John was talking about King George. That's what's happening right now. They're not accountable to us.
They're controlling our destiny.
So we're saying we s Leonard and I came up with this statement. If they're not willing to work with the seniors, then we're going to have to starve the beast. We're going to have to eliminate property taxes completely. And that's when we went through the whole process. We got a lawyer, a Kirtland lawyer, young lady by the name of Vesna Midjik-Barisic.
She helped us write the amendment. We got it approved by the Attorney General. We went before the ballot board. They gave us an approval because it was just one issue. That's eliminating all property taxes for commercial and residential.
It's gone. As I said, if we can get all the signatures by July 1st, it'll be on the November 26th. But we're also letting legislators know But if for some reason we don't get the uh required number of signatures, or we don't feel that we have enough over the minimum, We're going to continue this. This fight is not over. We will continue until we get it on the ballot because the people need a voice.
They're no longer going to accept what these legislators, I'm calling these legislators socialists. Because they're more interested in the special interest. Groups, their donor base, they're not interested at all in the average citizen. Will we remember in November those that supported us or those that? Oh, absolutely.
We're tracking that very closely. Are you going to give those lists of those individuals to me? Absolutely will do that. Commissioner John Plechnick was the very first commissioner. I think there was a commissioner in Mahoning County that has signed the petition, but there was no one like Commissioner Plechnik that is behind this for.
For the citizens of the state of Ohio, Leonard and I have made the commitment to the citizens of Ohio: we're not quitting. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. And I think the people really need to know how hard Brian and Leonard and their team are working to get those 600,000 some signatures. He mentioned how his speech was censured.
By the state legislature. I mean, it's got to be said, he went down to testify, so he spends his own money to drive down, pay for parking. And he gets on the Ohio Channel.
So he has an opportunity to speak to the people of Ohio, those who care enough to watch. And when Brian testifies, they play classical music over his speech. And of course, they say, oh, it was a snafu. It was a technical mistake. A glitch.
A glitch. And Brian says, Hey, could you at least read my testimony into the record so that I didn't come down for nothing? They wouldn't do it. They wouldn't do it. You mentioned the Boston Tea Party, Brian.
I have to say, I was actually born on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, and I feel like my entire life has been fighting against unjust taxation without representation because everywhere you turn, big government is trying to tax us more and more and more.
Well, we have less and less and less. And thank God for you. Thank God for Leonard. Thank God for the committee to abolish property taxes because the tiny reforms that we have seen. And I will say that there are some who've tried to make a difference.
I'll give credit where credit's due. I give credit to Dave Thomas for trying to make a difference. But those are forms are small. But even those reforms, even trying to limit increases to inflation, even trying to. limit the types of levies that can be put on the ballot, the smallest reforms.
Those would not have happened but for the committee to abolish property taxes. And I always tell my friends: either you want to abolish property taxes and you need to sign this petition. Or you don't want to abolish property taxes, and you should sign anyway. Because the only way we get any property tax reform is if we put the sword of Damocles over the heads of our state reps and senators and tell them, either get off your butt and do your job, or we're taking all the money back. 100%, Commissioner.
What we have also realized. Pastor Sanders, is that the public sector Has outgrown the private sectors to pay for the services. There's been a continued growth in government. Commissioner Ron Young on his last day as a commissioner in Lake County. He asked me to record it, and I do have it on video.
He said the two top priorities of government is to protect itself and to grow. The two top priorities of any elected official is to protect themselves and get re-elected. Not one mention of what's in the best interest of the average citizen.
So, Leonard's experience and my experience in trying to what we thought we have as a constitutional republic or a representative democracy that we can go to our representatives and they'll listen to us. Nothing could be further from the truth. And we are so When we pull back the curtain, we're saying This is all just an illusion. They're taxing us on unrealized gains.
So if you bought the house for $300,000 and now they value it at $300,000, you're paying tax on the $300,000. That doesn't make sense. You wouldn't do that if you had stocks, for example. If they said, well, whatever the value of your stock portfolio is as of $12.31, that's what you're paying tax on, even though you haven't realized the sale.
So we would object to that. Any reasonable person would, but why are they doing it? It's because they can do it, because they can manipulate. And they can reverse engineer. They know.
Uh all of these taxing authorities will submit their budgets The state and the local auditors know how much money that the schools need. and therefore they can adjust the values to bring that money in.
So we have become sort of jaded on this because We're saying that you're supposed to be servants to us. You're not. You are not at all. Brian, what what what aggravates me is to see people my age uh that have that worked, they paid their m mortgage off, you know. Their whole life they paid it off and then what happens?
They're on limited income, and they can't pay the property tax. These taxes are raised, they're not. There's no justifiable reason to raise these property taxes. Because when they reappraise your property for a higher number, you will try to sell it at that number. You can't sell it at that number, but boy, you can pay the tax on it.
And that's robbery. Homeownership is really just an illusion. We're merely renters.
So we're asking people. How important is private property? And I'm we're because if they don't have an answer, then they won't really understand the dilemma that we're in. We say if you continue to vote for these tax levies, you're funding your own demise. Private property, home ownership, is the foundation of our freedom and liberty.
This is more than a dollar and cent issue. It is a freedom and liberty issue. Pastor, back to your point. I came at this from much the same starting point as Brian. I looked at the folks who were impacted the most: folks on a fixed income, seniors who are being taxed out of their homes.
And so back in 2023, I wrote an op-ed to the Columbus Dispatch where I said: if I was a state senator instead of a faculty senator, I'd have a 100% property tax exemption for seniors. And I was shocked by the pushback that I got from our state legislators. It was like, oh, it's just a special interest group. And I said, what? I said, seniors are a special interest now.
You know, seniors aren't some lobbying group. We will all be seniors if we're blessed by God to live that long. And each and every one of us deserves the dignity of aging in place and staying in our home. And it just horrified me that the reaction to such a difficult situation in the end of life. was to say This is just some kind of special interest group.
We're not worried about the seniors. And frankly, my concern only grew. When the state said it costed out, what it would be. To exempt all seniors in Ohio. And I want you to brace yourself for this, Pastor, because State Senator Al Catrona asked how much it would cost for a 50% exemption for seniors.
And they came back with $1.5 billion.
Now, it doesn't take a math professor to multiply that by two and say that my proposal for a 100% property tax exemption for seniors would cost twice that or $3 billion.
Now, here's the point that really sticks in my craw. The all-funds budget for the state of Ohio this year, biggest in Ohio history, over $100 billion. Less than 3% of that. Less than 3% of the Ohio budget. That little cut.
Like an inflation adjustment for the raises for their salaries would pay for an exemption for all seniors in Ohio from property tax. Why the heck? Haven't they voted for this yet? They throw up their hands and they say it would be irresponsible to abolish property taxes altogether.
Well, I challenge you: if you've got a better idea, let's see it. But if you're not willing to give up 3% of the state budget to save our seniors, you obviously don't care. Yeah, and the other thing is, though, when the the first question we get is, well, Brian, how are you going to replace all of the property tax money? I can tell you, Brian, get rid of all the fraud from the Somalis down there in Springfield. It's way more than three billion.
That will take care of it. But go ahead. I don't know. What they have been saying Is that they don't want to address the property tax? What they're going to do.
And even the Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor, he says, I'm going to eliminate the income tax.
Now the income tax generates $10.7 billion a year. Not one person has asked Vivek Ramaswamy or any other state legislator who they're all for eliminating the income tax. Nobody asked them, well, how are you going to replace that ten point seven billion? And the reason they want to eliminate the income tax, there's no average citizen that is concerned about it. It's their large donor base that are making the $500,000 plus.
That's who they're serving, not the average citizen.
Well, we have to do. is get a list of all the state representatives that are in favor and those that are opposed and and get them to me and get them to People and talk radio. Yeah, I can tell you one is Rodney Creech. He's uh I I sent an email out to every senator and uh one responded and that was Rodney Creech. To his credit, he says, I'm I'm I'm not gonna support this, but we're gonna call him out because he's not interested in the average citizen.
Yeah, well, once we keep reading their names over the radio on a regular basis, um Well, the you know, I think that might change your mind. The the one positive one would uh or two, one Tech Fisher and Jennifer Gross are the two that have signed the petition.
So they get credit for that. Yeah, Jennifer, I've had her on the radio program several times. Super times, yeah. Super rep. And um Alrighty.
We're gonna be going to um the break here in a couple of minutes. When we get back, I think what we'll do is we'll open the phone lines, okay, and then have people call in because, like you're saying, Well, how are we going to do it? There's a lot of ways you can replace that. I mean, just consumption tax. I mean, a consumption tax is a fair tax, right?
Okay. Pastor, let me just real quick say this. The best answer to the question, take it from a tax professor. Two words, cut spending. Yeah, that's all we got.
There you go.
Boy, you got it right there. Yeah. We're going to have to take a look at the uh school funding. But everybody said, well, you you can't really uh you know impact the school funding.
Well, our our research has shown that there there's been a I believe it's fifteen to twenty percent fifteen to twenty percent drop in the enrollment. But the increase in the average cost per student has gone from $10,000 to $18,000 a year. Not just that, but as you have less and less fewer students, they want to add more and more teachers. And not just the medicine. It's the administrative costs.
It's not necessarily the teacher issue. What we're finding is that the addition of the administrative costs. Is skyrocketing. And when you take a look at the proficiency scores, why would we continue that model of the schools? And do we need 611 school districts in the state of Ohio?
We've had Auditor Galloway from Lake County was saying we can probably do away w uh with We can maybe get by with ninety four. You know, school districts.
Well, there you go. See, I mean this this is what we call common sense. You know, and it's like common sense has been outlawed. It's like you don't dare go there. Anyhow Uh we're gonna be coming up to Oh.
a break here in just a minute. Then we're going to open the phone lines. And we'll take your calls.
So the phone lines are now open at. eight eight eight six seven seven nine six seven three. Eight eight eight six seven seven nine six seven three. That fellow on the other side of the glass. He's got some issues, so we're we'll let him Uh pick it up uh after the Now there you go.
You guys can rough him up if you want. I mean There you go. It's interesting though that We're not only fighting for the the seniors, we're fighting for his generation. What they don't realize is their freedom and liberty is at stake. Without private property ownership, they're merely serfs to the government.
You hear that? I don't disagree with that. I don't know where you're getting that idea from. I hear that. It's the problem.
It's the after effect I have a problem with, but okay. All right, well, we'll let you voice your opinion. Cool. All right, we I know we're coming up. We got we got like one minute left.
and I see the phone lines are starting to light up at. eight eight eight six seven seven nine six seven three. Uh if you have questions, comments, you should Um If you like to if you like to pay a lot of taxes, uh let us know why that is, because Yeah. But you know what, this is something That even a bunch of Democrats, we actually have a lot of Democrats that agree with us on this one. And that's uh very few issues.
Well, yeah, we've got Democrats that are uh collecting signatures all over the state. Yeah. It's a nonpartisan issue. It's a fair issue. It's a common sense issue.
All right, we're we'll be back right after this with a whole lot more. Don't go away, more to come. Mm-hmm. Thank you for listening to What's Right, What's Left, the voice of the Christian Resistance. To support this ministry, head to wrwl.org.
That's wrwl.org. 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. The wordcleveland.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. I'm gonna get a ball.
