Down The Sewer Pipe – Politically Speaking

In our fast paced world there seems to be some ignorance as it relates to government and money.  The Congress of the United States of America alone is allowed to actually coin money in the US.  All other governments must “steal” money and this is known as taxation.Taxes are known by two general names those being taxes and fees.  Some see a difference but I do not as they do the same thing but between the two there is one big difference.  Taxes, as such, must have voter approval while fees can be raised at any time with out any approval from the voter.

In either case both of these items raise money from the population in order fro a government to pay for the services it needs or thinks it needs.  With the view that “all things are justifiable” it is fair to say that there are fees and taxes that are not needed.  Try though to have a government abandon or end a fee or tax and you could wait for a century or more.

This is not an exaggeration of any sort at all; consider the Spanish American War of 1888.  In order to pay for this war the Congress of the United States of America enacted a telecommunications tax on all long distance calls.  The ware was paid for by 1920 but the tax was not lifted until the first part of the 21^st century or about one hundred and five years.  Billons of dollars collected and guess what – no one really knows what Congress did with the money as the 1888 war was paid for and the money not returned to the ratepayer.  This didn’t keep congress form spending it though, you just cannot find on what they spent it for.

One of the reasons always given in raising fees or taxes for any thing is stated something like this “it has been <number of years> since we last raised it” or “other cities, towns or counties have higher fees”.  It is my view that increasing fees or taxes just because it has been a while or some other place charges more for the same service is not good governance.  Good governance demands that the fee or tax be based on real costs of eh service being paid for with salaries being no more than 25% of what ever service is being provided.  All to often salaries take 50% or more of the fee, which raises the next point.

Be cognizant of where the money comes from, while it is true some monies come from other governments in the form of non-interest loans or some to the vehicle all money comes from the people.  Constructing a fee structure to get the most from “the rich” violates the constitutional guarantees of the poor.  If fees and taxes are so high that a person on a twenty thousand dollars year salary cannot afford the tax or fee, then that tax or fee is two high and this goes for accumulation of taxes and fees.  For it is real easy to forget that your tax district charges are added to other tax districts so the accumulation becomes so high that lower income persons have to move.  This makes for a fun time at the council chamber “oh the tax to high, well then move”. They would have moved but you, the evil incarnate government “I can afford it so everyone can” took the very money that they need in order to move.

Also be aware that 25% of your constituency never gets a raise in what they make for income.  Their employer will tell them how good they are but not pay them anymore than the year before.  You up the tax or fee and they have to cut back on what they spend money for if the fee gets to high and 50% of your population in your jurisdiction cut back the economy in your town, city, county or state either bottoms out or goes into recession.

The normal governmental reactions to come up with a program to take assist the lower income persons, which if the fees or taxes were not so high would not be needed.  Though you would not be able to get political mileage out of it think of this value: a community so constructed that everyone in all walks of life can afford to live there.

Rich people will demand protection from the lower classes which defies the Constitution and that namely is this.  All people are equal some are not more or less important than others but all people stand on an equal footing.  This footing is removed if 25 % of your population needs assistance because you, yes you, have run up the fees to “squeeze” the rich”.  Squeezing a person simply because they have money is poor overnice at best insuring that lower income people can afford the fee or tax is good governance at worst.

Sherman