Riffing on President-for-Life Hood’s comments on the unfair plan to tax car-rental companies to pay for Uptown arts projects, there is a big disconnect lurking here as well.
At the same time Charlotte will be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get locals out of their cars and into buses, trains, on bikes, and hoofing it, the arts-funding plan will be encouraging visitors to come to Charlotte, rent cars, and drive all over the Carolinas. It seems passenger vehicle traffic is only bad if does not pay a 15 percent use tax. Then there is talk of taxing cell phones or imposing impact fees in order to raise the $350 million needed for the new transportation plan. Let’s start over.
If taxing cars is such a great idea and we need money for roads, lets combine the two in rational fashion with toll roads for limited-access highways and re-direct the $50 million a year raised by the half-cent transportation sales tax away from choos-choos and toward 21st century ideas. If Uptown needs money for arts buildings there already is a special taxing district for such things. Let Uptown pay for the things that will primarily benefit Uptown.
Taxing cars to pay for arts and cell phones and housing to pay for roads makes no sense.
