Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Taxes

Looks like we have a lot of taxes on the City Council's agenda tonight. Most of the taxes will go to fund the unfunded portion of the police and fire department pension funds, with the rest going to fund various unspecified community projects.

The plus side is that the city will finally get the pension funds funded, which has hung over the city for several years now. Also, the funds will come from a broad section of the users of city services, rather from those that live within city limits, since, as has been noted before, most of those who work within the city limits live outside of them. The down side is more taxes, especially on those who buy gas or liquor within the city.

Another option would be to increase the lodging tax, as that gets paid by visitors to the city, who generally do not let the amount of a tax influence where they stay. However, since amounts generated by the lodging tax go to fund the tourism bureau, I imaging it would take a rewriting of that ordinance to divert any funds to other areas.

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