Taxes, like health care, would be a blood sport, I thought. Our own Ben Franklin said: "The only things certain in life are death and taxes." (Ben's idea of a "public option" was founding America's first hospital, bless him.)
In addition to 13 attending task-force members, maybe 40 people were rattling around the ornate City Council chamber during the three hours the thing droned on. Two-thirds of them got up to comment, and almost every speaker represented a special interest - builders, unions, community organizations.
The hearing began on time, such a rarity in City Council chambers that it almost caused the walls to tremble, and ended three hours later, 30 minutes over schedule. MTFTPEC's formal report is due next month, and that's when the real squealing will start.
The task force's idea is to shift the tax burden "from taxes on things that are mobile (people and businesses) to assets that are fixed (land and buildings)." This form of civic entrapment is great news for tenants, not so great for landlords (including you, if you own your home).
The focus is not to reduce taxes (although MTFTPEC believes that that can be done by technology, cost-cutting and - ha, ha - by getting more from the state and the feds). The plan is to jigger taxes so they are not a barrier to attracting and retaining business, which provides the jobs that are the city's lifeblood. But when someone wins (businesses and wage-earners), someone else loses (property owners).
The task force acknowledges that before the city can shift the burden from wage/business taxes to real-estate taxes, we need a more efficient agency than the constantly-under-fire Board of Revision of Taxes.
But the BRT is not the only agency that trips over its own shoelaces, and is not unique in infuriating taxpayers.
