From the local paper where my Dad lives where I am today:
Boos to the state of New York for once again quietly raising taxes behind the scenes. This time it is at the Department of Motor Vehicles where standard eight-year driving license fees are going up from $50 to $64 and businesses with fleets of vehicles, such as cab companies and the local Stewarts shops, are seeing registration fees increased from $3 to $52 per vehicle. It is this type of behind-the-scenes taxes that often hurt the most.
This is one of my posting themes this year, concerns about how the headwinds from state and local governments fee and tax increases and fiscal problems are hampering the attempt to begin a recovery from what is being called The Great Recession–KSH.
It [i]should[/i] be a major them, as it, more than DC, at the nexus of taxation problems most directly impacting ordinary people and it [i]ought[/i] to be a source of significant pastoral concern for people of faith. That’s without even mentioning the growing pressure on churches to make “voluntary” payments in lieu of taxes.
A major church planting attempt by our congregation failed — in part — because the town was requiring us to fund the construction of over half a mile of esplanade-style roadway on one side of a parcel we own with a few hundred feet frontage where the town wants to extend its fancy road for other development.
The grab for taxes has only begun. The political elite (of both parties), their allies and the entire bureaucracy will fight with great ferocity and power to maintain their little kingdoms and positions of remarkable privilege in relation to those of us who fund them.
The are the modern equivalent of the money changers in the temple, and Christ was so infuriated with them that he took the time to “fashion a whip” — he [i]made[/i] a weapon with the intent of its violent use in order to punish and drive away those who used a privileged position to extract exorbitant fees from very ordinary people.
Apparently the phrase “public service” is being interpreted in Albany as the requirement of the public to service its rulers. Anyone that thinks those in government have no interests other than those of the people who put them there are deluding themselves.
Bart, your paragraph #3 is spot-on.
Seems to me, I hear the state of CA is too clever by half.
They are forbidden to raise taxes, by a fairly recent change in their constitution.. so……………..
They didn’t “raise taxes”, just lowered the rate divisions…
Grandmother
Someone has to come up with the money to pay for this year’s NYS Senate power struggle.
http://www.newsday.com/ny-senate-democrats-approve-hires-for-new-leader-1.1379533
As a democratically elected government, New Yorkers have only themselves to blame, though voting with one’s feet is often the easier – and less expensive – choice.
The elected office holders change now and then, but always beware of the state bureaucrats, especially the unionized ones, who are always ready to advocate why their budgets are not only essential but already badly underfunded.
to be sure, taxes are a dead weight on economies striving to regain forward momentum. But the dilemma for local governments is how to find funding for essential services. What we are seeing (and what is described in the post) is the tendency to lay a fee on everything that moves. It’s not quite a tax, but it raises revenue. To the extent the fee exceeds governmental costs, it might as well be a tax. Fees are attractive to pols because they can narrow the immediate impact to a relatively small portion of the electorate. In today’s Washington Post, Jim DeMint of SC wrote about legislation that contains a proposed fee on tourists from other countries coming to the United States. Each one would be required to pay a sawbuck to a fund that is intended to encourage other foreign tourists to come here. What utter idiocy. But the pols will go for it because the people who pay it aren’t voters.
And much of this is to fund state pensions of retired state workers – not to provide additional services to state residents.
[blockquote]And much of this is to fund state pensions of retired state workers – not to provide additional services to state residents. [/blockquote]
No, not in New York State. [url=http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/ny-pension-fund-contribution-rates-rising-1.1418949]That’s and entirely different mess.[/url] This money is just going to the general budget.