Taxation without representation

A new tax went into effect this year in many Pennsylvania municipalities. The old $10 "Occupational Privilege Tax" has been replaced by an "Emergency and Municipal Sevices" tax. This is a tax which municipalities may opt into, and it may be up to $52 per year. Guess how much most municipalities have opted for.

Now, despite the title of this entry my beef is not primarily about taxation without representation, a condition which was used as a rallying cry during the American Revolution. Nor am I taking particular issue with the fact that this represents an increase of 420%* over what I was previously paying, which is pretty remarkably brazen if you think about it.

I live in a community of just over 10,000 people with no industry to speak of - our major employers are the school district, some banks and drugstores, and one supermarket. I work in a community of fewer than 6000 residents which hosts industries that probably employ some 4000 people - nearly 2000 at my company alone. (Yeah, we're big.) So last year, assuming that there were 4000 people employed in this municipality, the Occupational Privilege Tax would have raked in $40,000. This year, with the same assumptions, the Emergency and Municipal Services Tax will bring in $208,000.

If you are a regular reader you know that I take a pretty Liberal outlook on a lot of things. And what are Liberals noted for? Yes, "Tax and Spend." And you know what? There's plenty that this $168,000 windfall can be spent on. Snowplows, maybe. The town - borough? Bloomsburg is officially Pennsylvania's only "town" - where I work takes a "Let the cars tamp it down" attitude towards snow on the roads, resulting in extremely dangerous conditions for the 2000 or so people I work with. Yes, spending money on municipal services isn't a bad idea.

Only that place isn't run by Tax-and-Spend Liberals. No, the political philosophy there is "Tax and Pocket." The general coffers don't get filled; as one friend pointed out, the people running the place aren't caught with their hands in the cookie jar, they just swipe the whole thing to ransack at their leisure. And unfortunately I don't have the ability to use my vote to get those bums out of office and have different bums installed in their place. I may pay taxes there, but I can't vote there. So maybe this is about taxation without representation after all.

On the plus side, this tax may actually increase job security for people working in Pennsylvania. Money like this tends to become addicting - anyone who purchases liquor in Pennsylvania pays an 18% "emergency tax" in addition to the 6% sales tax - the "emergency" in question being the Johnstown Flood. This tax went into effect in 1936, and it is unlikely that Pennsylvania will ever repeal such an extremely lucrative source of revenue. So the new EMS tax is a huge incentive to honest municipalities and crooked politicians alike to hold onto as many area jobs as possible, and bring in as many new jobs as possible.

All those $52 tax payments add up, after all.

*(($52-$10)/$10) x 100% =
(($42)/$10) x 100% =
4.2 x 100% =
420% increase