I agree


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Posted by D Sherman on Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 18:36:03 :

In Reply to: The code here is... posted by MoparNorm on Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 17:58:28 :

If the problem is runoff, that's already covered not just by ordinances but by common law. If one person does something on their property that causes water to run off and damage someone else's property, the downstream guy can sue for damages. It's been that way for hundreds of years. The fish and the water table are a trickier issue, since they're the common property of a lot of people, but I think that so long as the guy with the paving directs the water so it soaks into the ground somewhere on his place, it'll eventually find its way into the ground water and the rivers.

I also agree with you as far as using taxes to manipulate people's behavior. The purpose of taxes should be to raise money for public purposes that most people want. To that end, they should be simple and straightforward. Once we get into "sin taxes", the government is in the bizarre position of needing to have people keep doing the "bad" thing so that the government will get the tax money for it. A good example recently in Washington state was an increased tax on cigarettes to fund children's health care. What if people quit smoking? Then what happens to the children's health care? We see similar things with proposals for huge taxes on ammunition (presumably if the bullet cost too much, potential murderers wouldn't be able to afford them), outrageous "permit fees" for certain kinds of developments or industrial operations, and of course the good old tobacco and booze taxes.

I like it simple. If you don't want people to do a certain thing, pass a law against it. If you want to raise money for some government purpose, pass a simple and straightforward tax on everybody. But don't get into all kinds of complicated taxes (and tax breaks) to try to cleverly coerce people into changing their behavior. I expect the mother of all such taxes to be approved by congress before January is over -- a carbon tax, which Obama loves, ostensibly to be used to save the Earth. Speaking of global warming, I notice it snowed in New Orleans last week, for the first time in living memory.



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