Best laid plans of mice and Mayors

If you read the Mayor’s budget address you are either bored out of your mind, a political wonk, a dollar and sense junkie, or a too well informed citizen for some unexplained reason. It is laced with a plan here, a plan there, and several other plans on top of the plans. Every single one of them have a dollar sign attached to them. Plans for spurring econmic growth, jobs, making the city a place people want to call home, and the list goes on and on. What ever happen to the best plan is a sound policy. If you want econmic growth and more jobs one of the best ways to do that is to lower taxes! If you want people to move here and stay one of the best ways to do that is to lower taxes! The city should be the center for easy access to lots of jobs at a low cost of living. Instead we have the tax the rain plan. Yes I said tax the rain, otherwise known as the water run off fee. You get charged a tax based on the amount of concrete you have on your property. What is next, tax the air based on the amount of square footage you have? Don’t give them any ideas! The fee resulted because the city must have forgotten they were suppose to maintenance the sewers.
The fee for service approach has gotten way out of hand. Water, sewer, phone, garbage, and so on. I understand and agree with some of these, but it start to beg the question “what is my property tax suppose to go for?”. There are fees that should be in place, but the “Silly” council tries to place it against the property tax. For an example, False Alert fees. If you have a home seceruity system and it reports more than two false alerts a year you will get charged for each police or fire trip out to your home after the initial two. However, Council Member Remmington proposed that the fee be added to everyones property taxes. Bad policy there Ralph. All the plans in the world aren’t going to improve the underlying problems if you address the poor policy making practices.