Re: Yet another Ebay sap..

On Mon, 19 Nov 2007 11:26:01 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
<mmarlowREMOVE@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


In fairness Tom, there are probably points that I did indeed miss, as I
joined this thread late in its life. Sorry if anything I throw out may be
already covered.

I agree with your point in the second paragraph above, but that by itself is
somewhat disassociated with how either of us use the term "equitable", or
like discussions on the merit of the current property tax formula.

To be honest, Mike, I'm not sure that there is any taxation scheme
that is "equitable", that is, fair and balanced across the entire
population, or by any other objective definition. Certainly not from
the perception of the person who has to fork over the money.

As a first thought, and presented simply as a jumping off point for
discussion, the concept of "user fee" seems to approach most closely
my idea of "fair and equitable" taxation. Those who use the service
should be the ones who pay the cost of the service. If I go into a
doughnut shop and get a doughnut, I'm the one who pays, not the person
who happens to be walking along the sidewalk outside the shop. Why
should government services be different?

Of course that leaves open the big question of "Who is the user?". Is
the criminal the "user" of the police service, or is the general
population that is protected (debatable) from the criminal the "user"?
Is the person whose property is ablaze the "user" of the Fire
Department, or is the neighbor whose property is endangered by the
fire the "user"?

I believe any general fund taxation based solely on the value of a
property, whether that property be "real property" or an income stream
is "inequitable" since it focuses on an assumed "ability to pay"
rather than focusing on what generates the cost and applying the tax
burden to those cost generators. An ad valorem property tax might be
appropriate for support of Fire Departments since the risk to the
owner (assumed use of the system) can be considered to be in direct
proportion to the value of the property. Ad valorem taxation for the
support of "Parks and Recreation" is inequitable since there is no
correlation between the value of a person's property and their use of
the service.

In my opinion, the tax on highway fuels is one tax that approaches an
"equitable" classification. Ignoring the efficiency of government in
applying those funds, this is a case of the user of the service (the
highway system) is the one who pays the bill. If you don't drive on
the highway, you don't pay the "highway tax" - at least not directly.
Commercial transportation firms include the taxes they pay in the
tariff they charge their customer who pays the bill as the beneficiary
of and "end user" of the highway/transportation system.

No matter how the payment pie is sliced, someone is going to be the
one whose ox is gored. But, I guess what annoys me the most, and has
been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, are those professional
politicians who feel my pocketbook is an appropriate source of funds
for them to use to buy re-election.



Tom Veatch
Wichita, KS
USA
.

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