Tax Commissioner Rich Westman has been touring the state for the past couple of months warning that current school spending was not sustainable without significant tax increases. He followed those warnings by becoming the first tax commissioner to recommend raising the statewide property tax. The first warnings barely made headlines back in October; the proposed statewide tax increase got most people’s attention; and now that local stories are reporting local taxes could go up 6 percent and budgets are still having to be cut substantially, most everyone is paying attention.