Westchester Tea Party

Thoughtful discussion on a local weblog: Nixguy and Mike Meckler discuss taxation and voting rights for city workers who live outside of town (original post, and follow-up). The central issue is Dave's concern that the city benefits from his income while offering him no participation in local decision-making.

Not that they would want it, practically-speaking. Nixguy - I hope this is fair to say on his behalf - is like many who resides in the areas outside the city limits; he's more conservative. Obviously an influx of like minded voters, even on referendums, would cause massive amounts of disruption to urban retail politics, which are mostly Democratic in all American cities. (Witness the balance tipped by the evacuation of New Orleans.)

As the saying goes, all politics is local. We vote with our feet when we decide where to live. If federal and state elections could be "de-coupled" it would disrupt the massive grassroots machines of both parties, create an administrative nightmare, and open the door wider for election fraud. When our country was built and these laws were written nobody envisioned that we could live so far from the locale where we work. Although it is an engaging thought exercise to imagine how the founders would have tackled that problem (I think they would be surprised that the institution of modern government requires so much income in the first place.)

As to the specifics of state and local taxation, it seems like the primary stakeholders are the corporations, period. We are all at the mercy of their decisions, and the deals they work out with local officials are the fiduciary equivalent of prison rape. Data is almost impossible to attain since corporations are not required to disclose their state taxes. But many watchdog groups, who admittedly have an axe to grind, suggest some in the Fortune 500 pay don't pay any tax.

I'm guessing the chief financial officers of any big companies in Cincinnati have one key action item in their Franklin planners: Once a year paying all expenses to fly in the mayor of Denver, Portland, or Kansas City and strolling right past city hall, arm-and-arm, while wearing a big, girlish grin.