Americans for Fair Taxation

[Koikaze]

Hi, Merci

Among the problems of taxation is the matter "use" taxes. A huge percentage of the taxes laid on the people are to support various special interests. Among these are "developers". Here's a letter I sent to the Star-Ledger in Newark, NJ about a year ago:

To the editor,

One way to lower the tax load on New Jerseyans is to make new development pay the costs it imposes on our communities and our state. Unrestrained development is intolerable. It has flooded our schools and made our highways impassible. Development is sold to us as "growth" but its enormous costs are ignored.

We need a flat-rate tax of $100,000 on each new residence and $25,000 per parking space for each new commercial development. These taxes will not cover all the costs new development piles on New Jersey taxpayers, but they will slow the growing inequity our people must bear.

The tax must be earmarked solely for infrastructure maintenance and divided between the state and the communities in the vicinity of the development, with 25% going to the state and 75% to the local communities.

You won't be surprised to learn that the letter did not generate a flood of passionate responses.

Fred