13 November 2005

Taxes Are for Chumps

Instead of levying taxes (which the Bible points out are "Satan's tolls" in Republicans 3:16), how about charging "user fees" to citizens (see this previous post) or billing their auto insurance companies for reimbursement if emergency services are required at an accident?

It's obviously still a tax, but it's a "hidden" tax and it's only levied on citizens that use it rather than all citizens. Several major Ohio cities already do this, and Columbus is about to join the club.

I wonder why (a) so many municipalities are facing shortfalls in emergency funding and (b) how it can be better to fund services with large user fees for a small number of citizens rather than low taxes for a large number of citizens?

I know part of the reason for (a) is Ohio's lousy economy (Ohio ranked 46th in terms of average annual growth rate in Gross State Product from '97-'03), but the economic boondoggles of the Ohio Republicans have really added insult to injury.

In a state where major cities can't fund their emergency services, there's no excuse for passing tax cuts for the wealthiest nor for the top 50 corporations to have paid zero taxes.

There are people out there enjoying the libertarian utopia--no taxes and all the perks-- they're just not you.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You live in the West End, but it seems that you still haven't heard of the new homeless mall proposed for the old Club Chef site on Bank Street.

We have a dysfunctional community, and people don't know what is even going on. They are going to move Washington Park to our community, and people don't even have the slightest clue about it.

No major media wants to tell the story. This whole project is going to be done under the radar. This couldn't happen anywhere else other than right here.

-The West End Kid

WestEnder said...

How would one find out more about this issue?

Anonymous said...

They are having a presentation at the West End Community Council on tuesday night, 7:00, Heberle Elementary.

The only media that has picked up on this to date is:

http://www.wvxu.org/news/wvxunews_article.asp?ID=1882

Also talked about yesterday in the Dean of Cincinnati blog.

This is a 12 million dollar project on a five acre site. It is slated to be almost 100,000 square feet. I don't think anything so ambitious has ever been attempted in the State of Ohio in terms of consolidating social service agencies. And they are consolidating them right across the street from three schools with 700 students K-8.

You should get your friends and neigbors to go to that meeting tomorrow night.