Taxation without Representation
Jan. 14th, 2005 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellyssianExcellent!
Instead of paying $10 a year for an Occupational Privilege Tax, I now get to pay $52 for an Emergency and Municipal Services Tax.
This tax goes to the City of Bethlehem, where I work - not where I live, not where I can vote on local policies.
On the plus side, I pay a similar sort of tax where I live, a "You're allowed to work" tax, based on how the national standard for what somewhat in my position makes on average, which, unfortunately, is significantly higher than what I'm making. Or at least it was, until outsourcing became popular and high-tech salaries slumped. Now it's only "much" higher.
As an added bonus, when I drive to work, I still get to slip and slide on roads where the City of Bethlehem either didn't plow or plowed *after* they packed down the snow into a layer of ice so any plowing is superfluous. And, not only that, but if I have need of emergency services (or an ambulance, at the least) I will be billed.
So *what* exactly am I paying for?
Instead of paying $10 a year for an Occupational Privilege Tax, I now get to pay $52 for an Emergency and Municipal Services Tax.
This tax goes to the City of Bethlehem, where I work - not where I live, not where I can vote on local policies.
On the plus side, I pay a similar sort of tax where I live, a "You're allowed to work" tax, based on how the national standard for what somewhat in my position makes on average, which, unfortunately, is significantly higher than what I'm making. Or at least it was, until outsourcing became popular and high-tech salaries slumped. Now it's only "much" higher.
As an added bonus, when I drive to work, I still get to slip and slide on roads where the City of Bethlehem either didn't plow or plowed *after* they packed down the snow into a layer of ice so any plowing is superfluous. And, not only that, but if I have need of emergency services (or an ambulance, at the least) I will be billed.
So *what* exactly am I paying for?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-14 10:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-14 10:37 am (UTC)I live for them. Apparently.
*sigh*
I thought when I moved from Taxachusetts things would get better, but over the past year I have come to realize that, while housing costs themselves might be astronomically higher 300 miles to the Northeast, the taxes paid in MA are much less than what I'm paying in PA. I think it's something like a house worth 2.5 times as much as mine is taxed a third of what I pay out.