You would think the only people in trouble right now are the taxing entities, states, counties, and cities... NOT
We are all in this recession together and it is time to cut spending and STOP raising taxes and fees to help the cities, counties, and state survive. We all need to survive. There should be a moratorium on taxes, NO NEW TAXES. If everything that was funded last year was held to that level with no increases till its over this mess would eventually clear itself up.
However, every time a tax is incresed it puts additional burden on the tax payers... HELLO, you can't just keep raising taxes it isn't the only answer. Everyone needs to tighten their belt, including our states, counties and cities.
Take all the "shadow inventory" and put it on the market by GIVING it to the cities and counties where the properties exist and let them sell the properties any way they can provided it is to owner occupants. Watch the economy turn itself around. The sale provides immediate assistance to the taxing authorities and about 21 people will work on each house as it is repaired... JOBS that hit all aspects of our work force not just building bridges that benefits a few.
I see we are getting a new scale next to the old one on I-80 in Fairfield. Wooowee. Now we can have two scales and inspection stations and some one can be paid to remove the old one eventually. Wow that makes a handful of people have the ability to purchase groceries. An entrepreneur would have said "GEE times are tough, maybe we should put a hold on all new projects and pay our bills - or the alternative is to "go bankrupt" or "I got it - raise taxes again".
Put the brakes on spending - NOW!
I see that the City of Berkeley has 7.25% permit fees for renovation projects. Outrageous ! There are fees that range from $500 in some cities in the bay area up to their high. None should be that high, they just don't earn it. Moss Beach renovation project recently imposed a complete electrical and plumbing upgrade because the dry rot was more extensive than originally thought. That means the work for curing the dry rot was more costly than expected so the city then said add another $15,000 and upgrade everything without any thought as to the clients ability to pay fot the original work overrun and added more that someone had to figure out how to pay. Lets use some common sense on these projects people, we all need to survive these tough times.
Not too many years ago someone thought it was a good idea to over tax the rich in the yacht building industry. We showed them that if they can afford a yacht they can pay 15% luxury tax... yes, we showed them. They just started buying and keeping their yachts abroad, in other countries around the world. BTW, our yacht buliding industry moved too, and who was it that lost their jobs...? Not the rich people but the working men and women that built those yachts. We taxed an industry right out of existence in the US market. I guess we showed the rich, didn't we... NOT
What about the state of Virginia who imposed a tax on their most wealthiest home owners in their state to cure their deficit... then with all that extra money they would get they decided to spend more... and 1/3 of those people moved to the next state and they had a large shortfall than anticipated. Every action has a equal and opposite reaction. Had they just raised those taxes and stopped new spending they would have seen a reduction in their deficit. It was the additional spending that bit them in the... STOP SPENDING is the only answer till this is over and we'll all survive.
We will get through this economy but we need to realize all of us need to get through it.
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