Thursday, July 17, 2008

Can we get this for the IRS, please?

In Jacksonville, there is trouble with people requesting reduction and exemption of their "fees" owed to the city for sewer and garbage pickup.

Excellent.

If only we could get the IRS to make the transition to user adjustable tax rates.


New fee collections are not pouring into Jacksonville's coffers  [Emphasis added]
TIA MITCHELL
The Times-Union, Jacksonville
Officials say requests for rate adjustments have slowed receipts.

Jacksonville is $7 million behind where it wants to be in proceeds from two new fees, but thousands of requests for rate adjustments have slowed collections.

The fees were first billed in May. They would bring in $26.1 million - $18.4 million in stormwater fees and $7.7 million for a solid waste fee.

So far, $15.2 million has been collected.

More than 51,000 of the 285,401 property owners billed have asked for the charge to be lowered....

The City Council approved the fees last fall to soften the blow from state property tax reform and to diversify funding streams. The solid waste fees cover a portion of the costs of garbage collection. The stormwater fees will be used to treat runoff and reduce pollution.

But as always with politicians, check your wallet: "diversify funding streams." ← sounds like a City Council euphemism. I guess they mean to divert from the taxpayer's hip pocket for property tax and help themselves from the taxpayer's loose change in the side pockets.Like Willie Sutton leaving Philadelphia to diversify his revenue stream at the banks in Brooklyn.

Good for the taxpayers of Jacksonville. One out of six taxpayers are asking for rate adjustments, and it would be an easy guess to say that all requests are for lower fees.