And a hat tip to the Tertium Quids blog and to Instpundit, which both raised the issue this morning:
http://tertiumquids.blogspot.com/2009/07/runoff-tax.html
Monday, July 6, 2009
The Runoff Tax
The Richmond Times-Dispatch cheers the city’s implementation of a new fee (what you call a tax) on rainwater runoff. The reasoning goes as follows:
The fee is based on the amount of impervious surface per property, and the money collected will go to the upkeep of stormwater drop inlets, ditches, catch basins, and so on.
All items that, in the past, were paid out of the general fund, where they had to compete with other demands (and wants) for dollars. Competition for scarce dollars demands choices be made based upon greatest need or largest return on investment. But not so here:
Richmond is under mandate to improve its stormwater system. The changes will help improve the health of the Chesapeake and forestall federal intervention in that regard. As the system matures, we’d like to see it incorporate incentives for owners who adopt measures — rain barrels, rain gardens, grassy swales, and so forth — that reduce runoff in environmentally friendly ways.
I can understand the rush toward behavioral economics and the use of incentives. Taxes do create incentives, good and bad. Plus, a behavioral approach has a special appeal for snoops and scolds who really, really dislike the way you conduct yourself.
In reality, this is but another pot of money flowing into the city’s coffer that may or may not be used as advertised. Time will tell on that point, but until then, at least some Richmond residents will learn to curse the taxable rain.
Posted by Norman Leahy at 8:32 AM
And a little description of Tertium Quids from the web site:
Tertium Quids is an independent, nonpartisan, issue advocacy organization that promotes legislative efforts to expand individual opportunity and free markets, while reducing the size, role, and cost of government in Virginia.
Through grassroots education and mobilization, as well as direct contact with local and state officeholders, Tertium Quids redefines the parameters of the public debate in favor of individual liberty, dynamic entrepreneurial capitalism, private property, the rule of law, and constitutionally limited government.
Tertium Quids, Latin for “third way” or “third entity,” is composed of activists across Virginia whose loyalty and commitment are to the founding principles of our republic, rather than to party politics.
I hereby nominate the coinage of an incorporation of snoops and scolds and declare that all future use of this awkward phrase be shortened to the succinctly expressive, Snoopscolds(s).