Why This Flat Tax Is Appropriate (in my opinion)
Flat taxes are not fair. For someone living in a home with a lower assessed value, the proposed $189 flat tax will be a higher proportional tax increase than for someone in a home with a higher assessed value. If your current tax bill is $1000, it represents an almost 20% increase. If your current tax bill is $4000, it represents only 5%.
I represent an area where the assessments tend to be lower, with a fairly high percentage of seniors on fixed incomes, and I have consistently opposed the imposition of flat taxes because of their inherent unfairness. Currently there are two – a $27 tax that is directed to the reconstruction of Pineview Terrace, and a $60 flat tax that was imposed a few years ago, which was supposed to be set aside for special infrastructure projects, but in its first year was used to balance the budget.
So why do I support this new proposed flat tax? Mainly, it's because our situation with road maintenance and repair has reached crisis proportions, after six years of underfunding, starting when $2 million was taken directly out of the roads budget and directed towards the Neat and Clean project. Neat and Clean money, as I'm sure you'll recall, was invested in such things as new furniture for the mayor's office and council chambers, new carpeting in City Hall, and painting lamp posts on Central Avenue as high as the painters could reach. We now have to deal with the results of this neglect and mis-spending, compounded over six years, and made worse because those problems that weren't addressed over these six years are now more expensive to remedy.
The new flat tax will be put into a dedicated fund, solely directed to road maintenance and repair. All proposed roadwork expenditures have been removed from the general budget, and will be covered from this fund. We expect to collect $4 million this year; any money not spent this year will be retained for next year. If it turns out that it's more than can be spent in a single year, the amount can be adjusted each year to ensure that the amount collected matches what can reasonably be expected to be spent in that year.