Ravenwood - 07/24/03 01:00 PM
The Boston Globe notes that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is number one in fee hikes, and shows just how gullible and ignorant some taxpayers are.
"We used the occasion of the fiscal emergency to look at our fee schedule and make adjustments. Yes, fees did go up, but taxes did not." -- Eric Fehrnstrom, communications director for Republican Governor Mitt Romney.
"There's less political fallout for fees, the general public isn't conflicted. They just say, 'Oh good; you didn't raise our taxes.' " -- Rep. Paul Casey, the House taxation chairman, (yes they actually have a chairman of taxation).
"We really need to measure what happens when we raise taxes and what happens when we raise fees." Rep. Anne Paulsen.
Of course, anyone with a brain should recognize that fees are just another form of taxation, and a dangerous one at that. People aren't affected by fees until they go to use a government service, and thus don't have as big of a negative reaction to them. Also, if the fee is for a service they don't need or won't ever use, they tend to have an apathetic reaction to a fee hike. For instance, I never go to concerts at the Virginia Beach amphitheater, so I didn't really care when the city jacked up the mandatory parking fee for every ticket sold.
What is most dangerous is that fees are used by governments as an attempt to control demand and behavior. Once you let government regulate something, there is nothing to keep them from jacking up the fees to control the balance between supply and demand. If a state wants to give out less drivers licenses, all they have to do is jack up the fees. Of course they don't do it to something so popular as drivers licenses, they do it to building permits, alcoholic beverage licenses, and firearms licenses. For instance, under Bill Clinton, the BATFags began a crusade to drive gun dealers out of business. In addition to using any excuse not to grant an FFL, one of the first things they did was jack up the fees.
Voters are a fickle bunch. The same people that think private banks shouldn't be allowed to charge ATM fees for using their machines, are completely unphased when the government hikes the price of marriage licenses, car registration, or the local telephone service charges.
Category: Left-wing Conspiracy
Comments (4) top link me
I think its funny that the "government works for the people" yet they charge the people (fee's) to do just about anything that should be free. Driving should be a right. Why should I have to pay a fee to drive? Owning and carrying a gun is a right. Why am I charged a fee to get a permit? Parking downtown is a right. Why do I have to feed the meter?
Posted by: thebear at July 24, 2003 2:29 PMThe DMV always says driving is a privilege, which is only half right. The state reserves the right to regulate who can and cannot drive on public roads. On private property, driving is indeed a right.
Guns are a right, and are protected by the Constitution. Most of the thousands of gun ownership regulations on the books should probably be repealed. Fees should definitely be repealed.
I'm not sure how you figure parking is a right. Parking on private parking is NEVER a right. If I own a parking garage, I have the right to charge people to use it.
Government controlled parking is actually a perfect example of what is wrong with fees. At municiple lots and along roadways, what the government does is delve into the ownership and management of parking. Those services cost money, and they claim to be providing the services via fees. The rationalle is that people that don't live in the area use the services and should pay for them. Commuters typically don't pay local taxes, so charging usage fees is the only way to get them to pay for government services.
What really happens though, is that they charge consumers fees for the services, but still collect taxes on top of that. Whenever they are short of money, they raise the taxes, or they raise the fees. (or both)
Metered parking is pretty much just extortion, and a method used to control usage. (1 hour limits and the like.) It does hit commuters for the cost of services, but the way meters keep time, it seems like a giant ponzi scheme.
In summary, I sort of wish we'd go back to the tar and feather days.
Posted by: Ravenwood at July 24, 2003 3:50 PMI'm sure there was a very old Nancy cartoon sequence, where somebody was taxing everything, the final strip being a tax on air. It would have to have been from the 50s. I don't remember what the result of the final straw was.
I think bags of air were involved in the arrangement. I suppose that's not a physical possibility yet.
Posted by: Ron Hardin at July 24, 2003 4:06 PMThen there's Emerson's famous
The private poor man hath cities, ships, canals, bridges, built for him. He goes to the post-office, and the human race run on his errands; to the book-shop, and the human race read and write of all that happens, for him; to the court-house, and nations repair his wrongs. He sets his house upon the road, and the human race go forth every morning, and shovel out the snow, and cut a path for him.'' (Nature, ``Commodity'')
Posted by: Ron Hardin at July 24, 2003 4:22 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
