March 08, 2011

City Council Meeting

Missed meeting tonight but this was on the agenda:

10D)  Request City Manager, with the City Council, explore implementing a small business tax exemption at our tax classification hearing this year. Small businesses with 10 or fewer employees and commercial property assessed for less than $1M would receive a 10 percent reduction on their property taxes. (Smith, Eddy, O'Brien)

We already have the idea to tax 4+ units commercially on the table and now we want to have a 10% reduction for commercial businesses with 10 or fewer employees.    Although we all agree that going to the dual tax system was a mistake and we never should have gotten away from the single tax rate.  

Our answer to rectify the situation is to now we want to have 4 property tax rates?
  1. Residentail property with less then 4 units
  2. Residential property with 4 or more units
  3. Commercial property owned by a business with 10 or fewer employees
  4. Commercial property owned by a business with 10 or more employees
Why stop there?   Lets keep adding more classifications.  

6 comments:

mike a said...

watched the meeting. there was alot of skepticism of this...votes were made for more information ; no true vote on the issue.

Jahn said...

I agree, too many classifications.

Although we have a statutory two class system now, in reality it's really a 3 class statutory system when non profits are considered.

I would assert we even have a defacto 4th class, that although not mandated, is based 110% on politics and the 4th class is called a T.I.F.

TIFs basically tax the existing bagholders more money to subsidize, at least in Worcester, the poor performance of newcomers to Worc's tax base the city. A

Ask yourself what's the difference between subsidizing new arrivals in the form of newly arrived immigrants vs. new commercial business arrivals to Worcester by stealing from the existing taxpayers to subsidize the alleged underperforming new arrrivals who cannot afford their real estate taxes?

And speaking of taxes, The IRS says Worcester owes em $350,000. Only saw headline, aint read the story yet. I once owed the IRS $350, after which the state showed up for their slice of the action to the tune of another $125. Stay tuned for the other shoe to drop??

Word verification: disms (house?)

Jahn said...

A few years back, I questioned on here why someone would leave city employment after many, many years and commute from The People's Republic just north of Worcester all the way to Boston,at least 1.5 hour commute..... vs. ........... a quickie 15 minute commute to Worc City Hall.

Now I am beginning to connect a couple of dots and wondering exactly what did happened? Again, mere speculation.......

T-Traveler said...

you mean the guy who went to MAssPort or the guy who went to Fallon or the guy who went to jail

Jahn said...

You s/b be able to deduce who I am thinking of.

I dont recall any guy who went to Fallon, unless it was maybe someone who was in a higher city financial position on a temporary basis?

I am also aware of the Jailhouse Shuffle.

T Traveler, I hear there's a class action suit against teh MBRR for emotional distress due to commuter rail delays. You faring OK? YOu'll be paid in free travel vouchers so you can suffer even more emotional distress. j/k

I do know a person who I think left Fallon (think it was Fallon, et al) for whatever reason(s), and landed very nicely on both feet.

My lips are sealed.

T-Traveler said...

to me its a miracle that the trains run as well as they do. allt hose riders should thank their lucky stars for all the non-riders subsidizing their ride thru sales taxes. Train riders are extremely ungrateful and as far as i can tell, haven't done a thing to put any money into the union station area of town.

My complaint is that the MBTA/MBCR pays people all year long to clean the trains but there is always an excuse eg. the vacuum is broken