Another commendable article in the local daily today talks about how tax shifts will affect general groups. As you will recall, the City of Asheville recently threatened a property tax hike and an increase in garbage fees to make up for revenues lost by the General Assembly’s elimination of municipal business fees. The article points out that certain businesses, which may have included some rich enough to pay big bucks to lobby exemptions from the fees, will now be hurting, relatively speaking. On the flipside, big boxes will win big. And that should help them scrounge some more for their high wages without raising prices.
As for garbage, I have placed an inquiry with the City of Asheville. But since I never hear from them until too late, I will proceed to stick my foot in my mouth.
It was my impression, at least a few years ago, that municipal trash pickup was not available to downtown residents. They had to contract with their own haulers. If that policy is still in place, then the new fee is recovering from households money lost from businesses which, in the pre-Progressive era, was considered unfair. I will let you know if I have this wrong.
