4.10.2007

Fubar Priorities

So there was a local tax hike voted in and it just went into effect.
Which has thrown me off my stride more than I'd like to admit.

Years of retail have branded the old 7.25% tax rate into my cortex.
A four dollar pocket book is $4.29 goddammit, not $4.31.

But not anymore, so I'm doing double-takes every time I ring up a sale.

I voted against it.
Not because I'm a red-blooded, every man for himself individualist in the current Republican mode. If I had an Eagle clutching a banner in its talons tattooed on my hairy bicep it would read Tax 'em til They Bleed.

I prefer honest, straightforward taxation to our current system, where tax revenue has to be disguised as fees, tickets & fines because people need to be tricked into paying for a livable society.

Thus our "beautification" tax hike.

What would really 'beautify' the town is funding for the basically non-existent public mental health program, which would help with the 20 odd completely fucking deranged homeless people who live in the creek and roam downtown like piss-soaked zombies. Or funding more foot patrols on "bar nights" to wrangle the college kids who celebrate their independence by crashing through store windows & accosting passers-by. Or even fund the library, currently open four days a week and staffed mainly by volunteers.

That I would gladly vote for.

But God forbid they ask citizens to pay for anything substantive.

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