Brian Rodgers Needs Slaves
Speaking of equality before the law...
Austin American-Statesman: Big Austin businesses undertaxed, protesters say
About 35 protesters gathered Thursday at the offices of the Travis Central Appraisal District to allege chronic undertaxing of Austin's big businesses."The city has asked us to choose between wading pools and services for senior citizens," activist Brian Rodgers said, referring to proposed budget cuts, "while there's money to be collected (from) property that's missing from the tax rolls."
Rodgers analyzed sale prices and concluded that the appraisal district has underestimated the value of 30 large commercial properties in Travis County, leaving untaxed $128 million in potential property value.
As a result, he said, homeowners carry a great share of the tax burden.
Copyright 2009 The Austin American-Statesman. All Rights Reserved.
This world is doomed as long as people continue to believe in and fight for government intervention. We've traveled so far down the coercive-collectivist path that "wading pools and services for senior citizens" are part of the sundry list of goodies the state attempts to provide. Then, when the state inevitably fails to fund them to everyone's satisfaction, they are objectified as the "things are so bad that we can't even have BOTH!" type of mundane moral outrage designed to inject a little activism into apathy.
I'll assume that the figures Mr. Rodgers calculated are accurate. As with the previous entry, the essential complaint is that "someone isn't being treated the same according to law." As with the previous entry, the essential problem is that treatment is thoroughly immoral at its core and, barring other extenuating circumstances, the fewer individuals and organizations subject to that treatment, the better.
Now, I'm certainly sympathetic to the point that homeowners shouldn't be responsible for "a great share of the tax burden"...but that's because there shouldn't be a tax burden in the first place. Yes, the stench of corporate-government backroom dealing is foul. Most of us don't have that kind of access and influence; most of us would probably like less of a tax burden. I'd much rather see a growing association of businesses that tell the state to piss off rather than engage in the normalized business-state cycle of corruption.
Brian Rodgers need slaves because he wants others to fund the services he uses and thinks Austinites deserve. He wants those services so badly he wants an organization to establish a fee structure for others to pay. He wants that organization to send notice to the individuals and businesses within city limits that they have to pay these fees. If they fail to pay, they will be hauled into court. If they refuse, the organization will send people with guns to enforce the fee structure. If these people resist this enforcement, Mr. Rodgers wants these people subjected to assault, kidnapping, and theft so they are beaten into compliance or have those fees (plus additional costs for all that enforcing) taken without their permission anyway.
This is the essence of taxation and because
- sending cops to fuck with innocent people
- detaining the innocent in jail
- running courts to convict the innocent
- administering property seizures
and so on are so damn expensive, tax advocates would rather their golden goose be docile and subservient. They would rather have people (angrily, reluctantly, proudly, ignorantly) pay taxes "voluntarily" and without incident. Tax advocates want a world where people just pay up before the deadlines and get on with their lives. This way, all those awesome state services will be funded.
In other words, they want slaves to pay for their gawddamn Constitutionally-guaranteed penumbral right to a fucking pool or fucking entertainment for their elderly parents.