Quote:
Originally Posted by Myomi
So are you against all subsidization of creativity by government? In any form? Architecture? Parkland?..."Creative Class"..."Keep Austin Weird."...UT..."creative class"...New York City....
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I have simply stated (and restated each time another poster claims that I’m saying otherwise) that the City of Austin should assess the potential to adapt and reuse existing assets that the voter/citizens have already paid for, or are in debt to pay for, before initiating any grand new projects such as a new police headquarters building. The reason for this is that we’re already heavily in debt; and the more debt a city or county takes-on, the lower it’s bond rating (= FICO score). When your bond rating goes down, the discount you have to offer to sell your bonds ( = interest rate) goes up. And if the bond market isn’t interested in buying anyone’s bonds with a rating as low as yours, your bonds don’t get sold. So you either have to start paying cash for projects (like a water or sewer project that suddenly becomes an emergency---it happens), or you pay-down your debt to get your bond rating back up so you can sell more bonds. Pixie dust doesn’t work in this situation.
You and other posters have tried to paint me as against parks, which I’ve refuted. I’ve even justified Zilker, Butler, and Republic Square parks with financial and historical arguments in their favor. If you had bothered to read my posting you have replied to I even wrote there “
and reasonable parks and recreation facilities are a needed service”.
A needed service! Those are my words. And I have not singled-out the “creative class” for anything, especially an attack. I was a well-compensated member of the “creative class” for 15 years (before finding an even greener pasture) and I know how and why that happens. And I was not opposed to Villa Muse, so long as they played by the same rules as everyone else.
I don’t think you can say UT exists because it produces a “creative class”. It exists because the legislature decreed about 135 years ago that it would exist, to enhance the reputation and credibility of the State. Its very un-cool degree programs concentrated on classic liberal (old definition) arts. The “cool” parts came much later as a result of scope-creep, which I’m not opposed to since I took two degrees from one of the cool colleges there.
New York City stopped taxing some classes of non-resident workers six years ago (I stopped following that issue years ago, since deciding I would never want to work there under any circumstances), but continues to tax other non-resident classes. Their rules change every year and with each new court ruling. One recent ruling reads: “The city personal income tax is imposed on the 'city taxable income" of all city residents" (Administrative Code section 11-1701). The term "city taxable income" refers to a resident's "city adjusted gross income less his city deduction(s) and city exemptions" [Administrative Code section 11-171 l(a)|. The section 1127 payment must be computed as if the nonresident employee were a New York City resident and must include, in city taxable income, all income that would have been included if the nonresident employee had been a resident.” It looks like it depends on who you are and what you do and when you did it. And they could easily decide to resume taxing other classes if they wish.
Have you ever heard of a little outfit called American Airlines? How about JC Penney? Both left NYC for the suburbs of Dallas because of taxes. Penney considered White Plains, but decided as long as they were moving they might as well escape the state income tax too. Yes, companies do move from high tax locales to low tax locales
because of the taxes.
I’d rather we never need a City of Austin income tax at all.
But did you know that cities in Texas can choose to assess Personal Property Tax on cars, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, boats, campers, motorhomes, and any other non-real(estate) property that requires a title? Yep, they do it in the City of Dallas. You have to pay a tax every year to the city for the privilege of owning a vehicle you paid for, paid state sales tax on, and on which you pay an annual state license fee. Why? Because Dallas wants the money! Why? Because they want to tear-down their perfectly good bridges across the Trinity and replace them with pretty suspension bridges. Why? Because they have the money! And I've already mentioned Dallas' Reunion Arena, which has been torn-down before it was even paid for.
And if you sell you old “Josey and the Pussycats” lunchbox on eBay you’re running a home business which means the city can choose to charge you a Business Property Tax on your personal computer. If you declared a home office with the IRS then the city can tax the fixtures and furnishings --- even the carpet --- because those are assets used in your business. It may only be a few dollars, but you’ll pay it because the trouble to appeal it isn’t worth the few dollars.
Compared to a lot of places I have mentioned, Austin has historically been rather low-tax, but all of that will change if we aren’t aware of our debt level and the need to pay it back. Everything gets paid for sooner or later, but it’s always much more expensive later, and I rather like not having cryptosporidiosis and being able to flush my toilet.
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Great for a just-entered user. 
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