Comments on: Resources and Financial Capacity http://scrutinyhooligans.us/2010/02/06/resources-and-financial-capacity/ If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen. — Samuel Adams Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:18:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Alan http://scrutinyhooligans.us/2010/02/06/resources-and-financial-capacity/comment-page-1/#comment-39026 Alan Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:08:04 +0000 http://scrutinyhooligans.us/?p=11477#comment-39026 Don't consider occupancy taxes without remembering the hotel people. Homeless residents who manage to swing for a hotel room in the worst weather or once week to clean up. Shelter is a human need even for middle class travelers, and it is regressive to tax a human need to fund an entertainment venue like the Civic Center, which should be auctioned off with no deed or use restrictions. Even with tourists, if you do anything you should be taxing their entertainment (civic center) to fund their shelter (hotels), not visa versa. It seems to me that if Asheville has more jobs than homes, which forces commuting, and Asheville has the budget problems relative to the suburbs, which have more homes than jobs, than Asheville businesses must be getting more services than they are paying in taxes and homes paying more taxes than getting services. Asheville should therefore detax and deregulate homes (especially unit density limits) to balance the number of homes and jobs to decrease energy wasting commutes accross city lines. While pushing jobs out into the suburbs instead of homes, would reduce gas for suburban workers and shoppers as well. However a little tax imbalance is nowhere near worth letting thousands of socially conservative suburbanites vote in city elections, through annexation, and kill the vastly more valuable gay and contraception freindly majority. Domestic partner benefits are worth a lot more than a few tax dollars from the fringes. Dn’t cnsdr ccpncy txs wtht rmmbrng th htl ppl. Hmlss rsdnts wh mng t swng fr htl rm n th wrst wthr r nc wk t cln p. Shltr s hmn nd vn fr mddl clss trvlrs, nd t s rgrssv t tx hmn nd t fnd n ntrtnmnt vn lk th Cvc Cntr, whch shld b ctnd ff wth n dd r s rstrctns.
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]]> By: Stephen Towe http://scrutinyhooligans.us/2010/02/06/resources-and-financial-capacity/comment-page-1/#comment-39004 Stephen Towe Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:00:17 +0000 http://scrutinyhooligans.us/?p=11477#comment-39004 Gordon--Thanks for posting this. It indeed gives a more realistic view of Asheville's current monetary problems. I must say, it is apparent to me that Asheville is a victim of it's own policies--it is a user unfriendly city with poor service, cumbersome and ambiguous regulations, and high taxes and fees. That is why the ad valorem share of property taxes is so low, because most people want to escape the city and be in the county where more sanity and les regulation resides. As the owner of a very small 1000 sq. ft. office in the city, the cost of annual compliance and taxes exceeds $2500 per year--a daunting sum. It recently took me over 6 months and over 60 hours of my time to get approval for a directional sign at a medical office complex. There is so much confusion as to which rules apply, the primary administrators can't even figure out what to do. If Asheville would revisit their entire paradigm and ask "how can we do more with less?", lower taxes and fees, streamline approval processes, fire incompetent administrators, and get rid of all the dead and unproductive weight that resides there--the victim would find that all the lost weight, clearer vision, and reinvigorated businesses would be a healing tonic to a broken body. Respectfully, Stephen Towe

Gordon–Thanks for posting this. It indeed gives a more realistic view of Asheville’s current monetary problems.

I must say, it is apparent to me that Asheville is a victim of it’s own policies–it is a user unfriendly city with poor service, cumbersome and ambiguous regulations, and high taxes and fees. That is why the ad valorem share of property taxes is so low, because most people want to escape the city and be in the county where more sanity and les regulation resides.

As the owner of a very small 1000 sq. ft. office in the city, the cost of annual compliance and taxes exceeds $2500 per year–a daunting sum. It recently took me over 6 months and over 60 hours of my time to get approval for a directional sign at a medical office complex. There is so much confusion as to which rules apply, the primary administrators can’t even figure out what to do.

If Asheville would revisit their entire paradigm and ask “how can we do more with less?”, lower taxes and fees, streamline approval processes, fire incompetent administrators, and get rid of all the dead and unproductive weight that resides there–the victim would find that all the lost weight, clearer vision, and reinvigorated businesses would be a healing tonic to a broken body.

Respectfully,

Stephen Towe

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