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1. Delaware County proposes 23% tax increase, one council member calls it a fiscal ‘crisis’

By Todd Shepherd
 

Delaware County’s executive director on Tuesday unveiled a new proposed 2025 budget to the county council that includes a 23 percent tax increase, and will leave the county with an alarmingly small “rainy day fund.”

If passed, the tax impact on the average homeowner in the county, with a home assessed at approximately $250,000, would be $15.39 a month, or $184.69 a year. The impact would not just be limited to those who own single-family homes. HOA dues and rents for any kind of housing could very well see increases as landlords and property managers would have new costs that would need to be recouped.

This time last year, the council proposed and later passed a five percent tax increase.

At least four of the five council members (all five being Democrats) signaled their likely support for the overall budget, including the tax increase: Chairwoman Dr. Monica Taylor, Kevin Madden, Elaine Paul Schaefer, and Christine A. Reuther.

Why It Matters.  A county resident, Leah Kaufmann, suggested that the county would be foisting a second wave of inflation on residents with the tax increase.

“We the taxpayers are already hurting from inflation. The companies we work for are not paying us an appropriate [pay] increase per inflation,” Kaufmann said. “Some big companies can and won’t due to corporate greed, while other small businesses cannot without passing the increase onto our customers — thus creating a vicious cycle of price increases we the residents shouldn’t have to pay for our county mismanaging the budget. Respectfully, find the money elsewhere.”

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2. Trump’s historic victory reveals as much about us as about him

By Guy Ciarrocchi
 

Trump’s victory was historic — meaning it’s important and worth studying. The unfortunate reality is that in today’s America, any Republican win in a swing state or district is actually historic. However, Trump’s victory is in a “super-historic” category.

With all the post-election debate over why he won, too many have failed to take note of how much adversity he had to overcome in order to win — and not the obvious adversity. Perhaps more importantly, his victory says a lot about the mindset of an emerging majority in our nation. What most of us are looking to find, looking to stop, or looking to fix. 

The win underscores how academia, the legacy media, social media and Hollywood are, in fact, disconnected from our lives, our reality, and our values.

When we consider what he overcame to win, it says a great deal about the state of the nation.

Why It Matters. For decades, by design or through a series of decisions—or a go-along to get along mindset, American culture from pre-K to college, from Facebook to CBS and from corporate America to Saturday Night Live, there has been an almost factory-like unified focus in mass producing left of center voters: Democrats. And vilifying Republicans, conservative values, or anyone else who questions progressive orthodoxy.

That Trump could overcome all of that — and Kamala’s $1.5 billion actual campaign — and win, carrying every battleground state, speaks to the relentless, tireless, effective efforts of Trump and his party.
But it actually speaks louder to the values, hopes and dreams of a majority of Americans. Despite being programmed to distrust and reject all Republicans and their values, they voted against the machine.

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3. Lightning Round

• Courts reject Chesco treasurer as expert medical witness, but don’t catch that her degrees are from diploma mill

• Upper Darby income tax, speech limits, and ARPA reversal fail in court

• Paul Davis: Christmas cyber crime — FBI warns of holiday scams targeting shoppers and donors

• Where did Republicans gain ground in the suburbs, Part I

• Andy Bloom: I’m glad Joe Biden pardoned Hunter

• Delco jail oversight board member also has millions of dollars in county contracts

4. What we're reading

Is it weird that the federal government requires you to select a race on the census? It seems weird. It seems like the path to racial equality and a color-blind society should require less racial classification by the state. At The Free Press this week, Michale Lind makes the case that it’s time for the federal government to abolish race. It’s a thoughtful piece about a subject we usually take for granted. The feds’ ideas on separating mankind into five, and later seven races feels like a throwback to 19th-century race-science, not a 21st-century society that sees all Americans as individuals.