June 18, 2005

Seriously Part II

For those that think that a payroll tax in a city would be a good way to fleece the pockets of non-residents, you should read the following comment just left on my last post about this subject. Mary lives in Pittsburgh...a city that has actually instituted a payroll tax:

Pittsburgh is a good example of this. They started a .5% payroll tax. Downtown is starting to look more and more like a ghost town. Businesses are moving to the surrounding suburbs. They were also considering a commuter tax, where people driving downtown to work from the surrounding areas would have to pay for the priviledge of working downtown. They raised parking taxes to 50%, the highest in the country, and didn't understand what happened when the number of people parking downtown dropped dramatically. They're driving people out of downtown in droves, and still don't get it.

You mean politicians are clueless when it comes to such things? Yeah, that sounds about right.

More: Bill Hobbs cites Philadelphia as another example.

Comments:

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I guess it would only be "fleecing" if commuters used 0% of community services. If you are in a burning building in Davdison County, a Nashville firefighter (who lives in another county and pays most of his sales tax and all of his property tax there) will rescue you.

If you are in a car accident in Nashville, but you live in Franklin...does Franklin EMS come up here? No, Nashville taxpayers provide the service.

This could continue ad nauseam. I don't like paying taxes any more that you extreme conservatives. If we took the Phil Valentine approach to government we wouldn't have:

1)The Arena/The Stadium (private businesses)
2)A library system (they compete with bookstores)
3)Emergency Medical Services (private ambulance companies exist)
4)A parks system (if you want to play on grass, then you can buy it or rent it)
5)Regulation of any kind (caveat emptor) EXCEPT regulations that protect the wealthy such as, "Those damn poor people keep filing suits against doctors, let us regulate how much the wronged deserve" or "A little lead or arsenic in the water won't hurt anyone...I'M PROVIDING JOBS DAMMIT!"

About the only things the conservatives WANT to pay for is a military and a police force. I don't know how THEY see it, but for me it's kinda revealing...

Posted by: Short and Fat at June 18, 2005 11:47 AM