I agree it's a little odd. Why assess the sidewalk, but not the road? Why does someone on a corner lot get dinged? I think City of Madison proposed (and maybe even approved) a city forestry assessment roughly based on property frontage. Just another "creative" way to tax.
Seems like moving towards use fees is where we're headed generally. School supplies is another great example. When I was a kid we supplied our own notebooks and pencils. Today parents have to bring in all kinds of classroom supplies like kleenex. It's such waste of time for parents and ends up costing much more than taking advantage of bulk purchasing that could happen through the district. But as school funding continues to get squeezed it's one way to pass the cost on to the user. I wonder how long before we start charging for library rentals and city parks; I'm sure someone can come up with a coin operated swing set. Or maybe we can come to grips with the value of public goods and services and be ok with a high tax bill and stop the games. On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 1:58 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > "Grant Foster" <[email protected]> sez: > > > And if anyone seriously proposes a bicycle wheel tax, I'm going to push > > for a shoe tax to accompany it. I'm tired of all those freeloading > > pedestrians not paying for their sidewalks... > > I know this was brought up in jest, but actually, I'm tired of the cost of > the public infrastructure of sidewalks being assessed against the > homeowners who happen to be adjacent to this piece of the public > right-of-way. The cost should be assessed proportionally across all > property taxpayers* whether they have sidewalks or not. We could use more > sidewalks to make a more walkable city, and one of the primary causes for > homeowner opposition to new sidewalks is that the cost is imposed directly > on the homeowner even though they are available for all to use. > > (As a matter of fairness, one can make a good case for an exemption for > homeowners who have already been assessed for sidewalks under the current > system to avoid double taxation.) > > > > >
_______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
