So it's a tempest in a teapot. If you'd rather be "taxed" for building
permits, car registration, etc., you can call them taxes if you wish.

--
Ed Huntress
22% of local revenue in NY is a big number. If my local government starts
charging to use a previously free park, for example, I don't dispute that
the charge is a fee, but the government should still be accountable for what
they are doing with the extra revenue. Same goes for tuition increases at
state colleges. Fee increases on the local and state level in NY have been
significant in recent years. RBnDFW is right, unless previously tax
supported functions were converted to fee supported functions on a revenue
neutral basis, the government is taking more money from citizens.

It's understandable why government is taking more money from citizens.
It's taking less money from corporations. So you are making up the
difference. In the 1950s total revenue collected from corporations was
close to 35%. Today the total revenue taken in from corporations is 7%.
That 28% difference is now being picked up by the ordinary taxpayer. But
that shift in tax burden from corporations to average workers is exactly
what the conservatives/republicans wanted. My question is why do regular
working people like you want to pay more in taxes so that corporations
can pay less? I would think you would want it the other way around. But
then wanting things that are against their own interest is just what
most right wingers are for these days. Go figure.

Hawke