I should be happier about the mid-term results than I am. I am VERY pleased with the overall, nationwide results. There were some amazing upsets. 🍾
But the blue wave missed my state. 😢 I kept waking up feeling depressed about it. Now we've got ANOTHER 4 years with a maga toady governor-- the kind that likes to make it easy to pave over swamps and suck the aquifers dry. Not to mention that Angie Nixon lost the Senate election. (So glad, though, that nationally, D's got control of the Senate with a few seats to spare.)
Neither Democrat was trounced by any means though: The margin was 1.3% for governor and 1.9% for the Senate. That's a bit of a moral victory in this state.
But what bothers me most was that voters approved an amendment in the state constitution which mandates a massive increase in homestead exemptions for local property taxes. For those who don't know, the homestead exemption means that if a home is one's primary residence, the first $X of its value is exempt from local property taxes. Which is good, as long as the purpose is to give tax relief to people who live in modest homes. Currently the exemption is $50,000. So not a lot. And with housing prices being what they are, I agree it should be more. But the amendment calls for a $150,000 exemption next year, and $250,000 the year after. This means that counties and water management districts are going to have a very large and sudden drop in revenue. They'll either have to cut services or increase the millage rate, or both. Increasing the millage rate will hit non-homestead properties the hardest, meaning that landlords will have to increase rents when they are already unaffordable for many. And cutting services will hurt everyone.
But considering the good stuff that happened yesterday, maybe I won't have to move to Canada to get out of hell. I can just move a couple hours north to Georgia!
If anyone cares to send me some"look on the bright side" vibes, that would be great. Truly.