You may have already read about the tax assessment controversy in the Capital City.

The news today is that last night (actually early this morning, since the meeting went past midnight) the Montpelier City Council voted unanimously to base the next year's property tax bills on the old assessments, giving the city another year to be sure it's getting the appraisal system right. 

The room was packed with people challenging the seemingly arbitrary way the figures were arrived at, the lack of transparency in the methodology, andwhat they considered an inadequate response to their concerns by city officials. Complaints also raised broader policy issues, such as the allocation of tax burdens between commercial and residential properties.

There is room to be impressed both by the thoughtfulness of the comments, the responsiveness of the Council members, and the organizing job that Gary Schy did to get this rolling. 

This one seems to have come in under the radar, but apparently the Oscar-winning actor Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter, Pulp Fiction, True Romance) is going to run for president in '08, as an independent. From the Walken 2008 website:

“Our great country is in a terrible downward spiral. We're outsourcing jobs, bankrupting social security, and losing lives at war. We need to focus on what's important– paying attention to our children, our citizens, our future. We need to think about improving our failing educational system, making better use of our resources, and helping to promote a stable, safe, and tolerant global society. It's time to be smart about our politics. It's time to get America back on track.”

It's not a joke, but it seems that he should have gotten the ball rolling a bit earler if he hopes to get any sort of visibility at all, if for no other reason than to press the issues. It'll be interesting to see if this is able to make a ripple at all in the campaign. At the very least, it might make it a bit more interesting. And he's a hell of a lot better actor than Reagan was.

As an interesting side note, his parents had  a summer home next door to my grandmother's house in Florida. I used to stay  there every now and then and used to party my teen years away with his nephew,  Jesse, too.

UPDATED: Well, shame on me. Hat tip to kestrel… it IS a joke, easily debunked on Snopes.com. Perhaps there is a future for me at the op-ed pages of the Caledonian Record.