We’re way beyond invasive searches in this country. We’re at the point now where the President decides if you can have your job, how much money you can make, how your business can be conducted and where. Soon, we’ll be told what kind of cars we can use, what kind of light bulbs, how much electricity and water, who knows where it will end?
Incandescent light bulbs cause global warming, and other hideous catastrophes.
In Washington, DC, the %^&& is about to hit the fan on property taxes. The basic residential tax rate is $0.85 per $100 of valuation. There is a class 3 rate which last year was $5/$100, and it has now been raised to $10/$100. This is for vacant properties. It was originally designed to compel people who were neglecting their vacant lots or building to clean and repair them. Now, however, any vacant lot or building can be taxed at that rate, even if it is clean and well maintained. What business is it of the government if one wants to leave a building empty for a while, or wait to build on vacant land? This $10/$100 rate seems to me to be an illegal seizure.
There are a few ways you can get an exemption from this rate. One is to have permits to improve the property. But this exemption is only good for one year. Who, without a lot of money, can get an entire building rehabed in one year, given the f^&*& up bureaucracy in DC. Another taking from people of modest means.