The headline says it all -
Plan Would Let Seniors Work to Pay Taxes
Because lord help us all if we can't squeeze every penny out of each citizen.
Two notes - Boulder, CO is a 'pioneer' in the practice. And the smugness of the city bureaucrat who "added that many stay in the program as volunteers after paying off their taxes."
Because these helpless old folks just need the city labyrinth for company and companionship, I can only guess. The next time some wild-eyed libertarian radical says something about taxes equaling (partial) slavery I'll be reminded of this.
Posted by Walter at December 26, 2007 09:46 PMWell, they could re-write property tax laws to make them somewhat regressive but that wouldn't be so wonderful, would it? Not a surprise that Boulder was a "leader" in this area. What is their median house price up to these days? $525,000? $545,000?
The big problem is this flies in the face of the need for all of us to pay taxes for these "services", doesn't it? If someone 80 year old can go play door greater at the courthouse for $7 / hr, 20 hours a week, 40 weeks a year is the city getting $5600 of value out of that? But wait, it's not $5600 cuz now they have payroll-related taxes as part of their costs. And isn't $7 a bit low? Shouldn't they be paying a living wage like $13 / hr?
Anyway.......what is the actual value of what the city gets from this? I doubt having a few codgers show up at the courthouse to "volunteer" is giving the city much of anything in terms of what they need. They're not getting $$$$ to pay for the "services" they provide. And if they're part-time "volunteers" then what they're doing was very unlikely they're meeting some pressing the need of the city. So why is it that property taxes need to be so high in the first place? To ensure they can force some people to "volunteer"?
I think a lot of baby boomers have never been able to break with the idea that the great generation of Americans that gave a phenomenal quality of life won't be their to pay for all the baby boomer transgressions.
For the Baby Boomers, I say that we not only tax the seniors, but that the money taken from the greatest generation should be spent on something that is disgustingly frivolous.
Posted by: Kevin Delaney at December 28, 2007 10:38 PMAllen: some good questions. Regarding the tax implications of 'volunteer' work for the city, I suppose the IRS has some opinions on it. I don't know if that's considered taxable income or not. As for whether the city gets value from the seniors' service, that's not hard to figure. You can safely assume that actual dollars collected aren't spent too efficiently, so if they get any use at all from their time that would be a plus.
Kevin said, "the money taken from the greatest generation should be spent on something that is disgustingly frivolous."
I gather that's already the case. ;p
Posted by: Walter at December 28, 2007 11:17 PM