Column by David Reynolds
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Conservatives have been a little rough on all the spending out of Washington. They somehow think it is excess. That’s because they are still living in the dark ages of the 20th Century when budgets were in billions and not trillions. And they don’t seem to care for all the new taxes Mr. Obama has in his 2011 budget because the old taxes seem quite sufficient. How lacking in imagination!
No wonder conservatives are so unhappy. They insist on having government both ways – less spending and fewer taxes. Why can’t they compromise on a couple of silly principles?
Therefore it is time for those nay saying Republicans to get off the president’s back. After all, our freshman president, a former freshman senator, is still learning the ways of Washington. How else can you explain blowing the cover off his health care plan? We found out that it had little to do with our bodies – more to do with the size of the body of government. Now I ask you, would Mr. Kennedy have been so greedy?
Sorry, I digress. Back to the ingenious ways governments pick your pocket and line theirs. They play a shell game with nickel and dime taxes. They think you won’t sweat the small stuff no matter how many ridiculous taxes and fees are levied. Besides, with each new tax there needs to be new government hires to administer them. Ah, those lawyers! They have us coming and going.
So, let us give the president a week off. But not his temporary home town. Our Exhibit A comes from the District of Columbia, where they truly know how to “nickel and dime” you, or, at least nickel you to endless frustration.
DC is, as you know, a very important place. Just ask anyone who lives there. (But don’t ask anyone who lives in New York.) It is a government town and governments, just like real people, always needs more money. As a result, Washington, D.C., came up with its nickel-a-bag tax. Starting this year every food store in our crazy capital is required to charge five cents for every bag, paper or plastic, used to take purchases home. Chalk it up as one of those green ideas. It is to reduce waste and clean up the Anacostia River.
You see, Washington, D.C., suffers from a dual personality. It doesn’t know whether it is a state or a locality. By claiming it is both it feels it can tax its citizens even more than, say, Taxachusetts, the state, excuse me, the commonwealth where Scott Brown threw a tea party. For example, Speaker Nancy’s home town of San Francisco is about the same size as DC, but doesn’t have a public payroll nearly its size.
On to the Bag Law of Unintended Results. A major problem: No one is quite able to define a food store where only the bag law applies. But please don’t ask. Otherwise the DC government will tell you that it applies to virtually any store. As a result, the Chocolate Mouse, a candy, gift and jewelry store had to charge the tax. Target is also considered a food store. So Target lays on the nickel a bag tax. So far, restaurants do not have to charge for doggie bags – as long as the bag is paper, not plastic. And get this. Victoria’s Secret, because it sells edible body icing, may have to add a nickel a bag to the cost of those unmentionables. However, the case is under review. It just shows that government can get into everything.
The bottom line? The early estimate for 2010 was $3,500,000, but that was before the last snowstorm. Naturally you need a bag to protect your purchase from the snow. Do you think that the DC Government seeded clouds to sell more bags? Just asking. Keep in mind that Manhattan Island was purchased for only 520 nickels.
That’s it for one locality. There are almost ten thousand localities and special tax districts in the USA. Therefore the opportunity for government to do its mischief is almost boundless. That’s what makes this such a great country. There are opportunities for everyone – just more so if you work for government.
Here’s another example. It falls under the category of never allowing a tax to expire. A couple of Virginia localities raised their lodging tax from 7 to 9 percent in order to support a local public facility. Seems reasonable. However, a few years later the facility was turned over to a private foundation. The higher level remains. No one has raised a question. No one has asked for the tax to go back to 7 percent. The beneficiaries are happy. And so are their horses. Neither are talking.
Maybe we are getting too close to home, so we better stop here. Next week, we can blame Mr. Obama for all the snow this winter. Or do I have the wrong president? In any event, when your local government comes up with any nickel taxing ideas don’t bother giving it five cents worth of thought. Just tell anyone running a city or a county to “Bag it!”
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