Reader Paul wonders why I care about Seattle taxing its citizens in odd and stupid ways when Portland has its fair share of excessive taxation. In the grand scheme of things I really don’t care all that much. Seattle is a nice city and all, but it is home base for a lot of socialist nutballs who think wealth redistribution is a holy calling, and a tax on the number of hours worked per employee really isn’t all that odd when seen in that context.
My point isn’t that I was upset with Seattle specifically. Portland is crazy like that in many ways too. What I’m afraid of is that the powers that be in Portland will hear about this tax and think its a good idea to implement too.
As for the business fees Paul mentions, I’ve been a victimcontributor myself. For most of 2005, I was a contractor and ended up having to pay the minimum 100 bucks extortion for a Portland business license. In fact, I just had to send in a letter telling them I’m wasn’t self-employed in 2006 so they wouldn’t shake me down for another 100 bucks.
Yes, Portland has its share of strange taxes and fees. It’s part of why the city has such an anti-business reputation that the current crop of city leader don’t do enough to address, but I’m against all idiotic taxes on general principles and the Seattle one just happened to be the one most visible to me at the time.
I actually found out about the tax from a Jack Bogdanski post. So a hat tip to Mr. Bogdanski, one of the big fish in the Portland blogosphere.
Are you more upset about “excessive taxation” or the rising influence of “socialist nutballs” though I wonder? I betting you’d probably say both and evade my point though.
Though on a national level I guess I really have no point.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/usprimaries2007
Yep.