[Winona Online Democracy]
At 11:12 PM 8/29/00 -0700, Wendy D. wrote:
>I think it would be asking a lot of a homeowner to cover the full cost of
>repairing the street in front of her home. Seems fair to charge a percentage
>to her. If there were other ways to charge which would ask the supposed users
>to pay, that would seem more fair. An extension of the sales tax beyond
>dredging to pay a portion would be fine with me.
>The proposal to extend Bundy Blvd north seems good to me. How to pay for it?
>My first impulse was to ask Corey to pay a chunk. Maybe he could pay for some
>of the hidden costs as well, like for the unemployment checks to the Tri-Mac,
>UBC, and Fleet Farm workers who earn a living wage right now (sarcastic
>humor).
Let's be careful not to confuse residential streets with those serving
commercial purposes. Both provide benefit to the community as a whole, and
thus the costs should be borne to some extent by the entire community
through taxes.
However, street improvements leading into a commercial or industrial area
(e.g. extension of Bundy Blvd. north of Hwy 61) also provide a specific
economic benefit to those businesses, so it seems reasonable that they
should be asked to pick up a larger piece of the cost. This is rarely the
case, in contrast, for improvements to residential streets (e.g. Wabasha
street near WSU) unless they are just being put in or have really been
allowed to deteriorate. Only in the minds of city planners and tax
assessors (who claim street improvements increase the value of a house, even
though you can't actually sell it for any more than you could before) is
this seen as a benefit to the homeowner. For far too many people, street
improvements lead primarily to increased traffic, noise, and dirt.
Let me play devil's advocate here (yes, I know there are holes in this
reasoning, but it makes for good discussion): if the street in front of your
house is used 99% by other people and only 1% by you, should you be expected
to pay more than 1% of its upkeep through specific assessments in addition
to the taxes you already pay for the "community" part mentioned above?
Ed Thompson
Ed's witty saying for this week:
If it's called "tourist season", why can't we shoot them?
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