I was poking around on the New York Times and found this article about Beatrice Nebraska. In an attempt to fill depleted city cofers, city officials are resurrecting the homesteading act of 1862, or more specifically activating their own new homesteading act of 2010.
It hardly sounds like a prudent scheme. But in a bit of déjà vu, that is exactly what this small Nebraska city aims to do.
Beatrice was a starting point for the Homestead Act of 1862, the federal law that handed land to pioneering farmers. Back then, the goal was to settle the West. The goal of Beatrice’s “Homestead Act of 2010,” is, in part, to replenish city coffers.
It hardly sounds like a prudent scheme. But in a bit of déjà vu, that is exactly what this small Nebraska city aims to do.
Beatrice was a starting point for the Homestead Act of 1862, the federal law that handed land to pioneering farmers. Back then, the goal was to settle the West. The goal of Beatrice’s “Homestead Act of 2010,” is, in part, to replenish city coffers.
The calculus is simple, if counterintuitive: hand out city land now to ensure property tax revenues in the future.
“There are only so many ball fields a place can build,” Tobias J. Tempelmeyer, the city attorney, said the other day as he stared out at grassy lots, planted with lonely mailboxes, that the city is working to get rid of. “It really hurts having all this stuff off the tax rolls.”
Around the nation, cities and towns facing grim budget circumstances are grasping at unlikely — some would say desperate — means to bolster their shrunken tax bases. Like Beatrice, places like Dayton, Ohio, and Grafton, Ill., are giving away land for nominal fees or for nothing in the hope that it will boost the tax rolls and cut the lawn-mowing bills.
In Boca Raton, Fla., which faces a budget gap of more than $7 million, leaders are thinking about expanding the city’s size and annexing neighborhoods as an antidote. Sure, more residents would cost more in services, but officials hope the added tax revenues will more than make up for it.
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As I read the article I was struck by one thought ---"How Aries" A new adventure, a new opportunity, breaking new ground, a new beginnning, new promise--- Sounds like Aries to me! So, I drafted a chart for The Homestead Act (May 20, 1862) expecting to find an outer planet in Aries and I was not disappointed. There I found Neptune at 3 degrees of Aries. "Dreaming of a new hope" perfectly Neptune in Aries. Of course the tie to 2010 is remarkable, now we have Uranus in early Aries, along with Jupiter which puts the accent on unusual new opportunities.
Additionally, Chiron was in early Pisces which again ties into 2010 as Chiron moved into Pisces in April this year. With Chiron in Pisces, there is a boost in our Karma/Dharma bank. Either big deposits or big withdrawals. In the time of Lincoln, the Civil War and the battle over slavery certainly speaks of the painful part of Pisces (along with Lincoln's death) but at the same time the expansion and settling of the west, the beginnings of transcontinental railroad speaks of the hopefulness of Pisces.
Modern day homesteaders in unusual ways fits perfectly for our times.
ETA: Kirsten Marsh offered up another take on Urban Homesteading which again ties into this theme. "Urban Homesteading"
Homesteading in America (again)
