Tax hikes, paid parking and stretch codes? Oh my. Actually, make that a Heck No! If enacted, Mayor Holaday's green and tax agenda will place a heavy burden on Newburyport's economy. The mayor and city council need look no further than today's paper "Tax holiday not enough, say some liquor stores"(Aug.12), to see for themselves how increasing taxes changes people's behavior. In their effort to soak the tourists, it's the businesses and residents of Newburyport that will wind up getting hosed.
The council will soon be asked to vote on Councilor Cameron's proposal to implement a "local option" on the meals and room taxes. This will mean a meals tax of 7% and room excise tax of 6%. I believe the visions of new revenue have caused the mayor and councilor Cameron to lose sight of the fact that tourists are pretty sparse in wintertime. In January when the wind is howling up State St., it's locals that keep the eateries in town a going concern until summer rolls around. As for the tourists, if you make it more expensive to eat and stay here, they will simply take their business elsewhere.
Next up in the mayor's quest for more revenue is a proposal for paid parking downtown, including the potential for a parking garage. Residents and those that work downtown are promised a sticker, while tourists will have to pay by the hour. How exactly is a sticker that will likely cost $10-20 a good deal when we can park for free now? The mayor likes to use Portsmouth, NH as an example of how painless paid parking will be without mentioning that it lacks a 6.25% sales tax. The more expensive you make it to visit our city the more incentive folks have to keep driving up 95 to NH or just over the bridge to Salisbury.
The mayor's effort to make Newburyport greener, while not a tax, will make its residents poorer. The stretch codes will add $10-20 thousand in construction costs for new development and more problematically will apply to all renovations. Everyone should want to spend less on energy, but it's a mistake to make us subject to the green police. A bureaucrat with more idealogy than sense, like that fool in Oregon who shut down a child's lemonade stand, could have made repairing damage from that powerful spring storm a nightmare. Imagine wanting to fix the hole in your roof, but being told you needed new windows and a new furnace to be green compliant and you couldn't get a permit until you agreed to make the upgrades. Now, imagine getting your insurance company to pay the bill.
The City Council needs to check Mayor Holaday's efforts to make it more expensive to live, work and visit our city. The great recession has forced many in America to do more with less, City Hall should do the same.
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ugh! As you commented on the meals tax and the paid parking I began climbing onto the table to cheer in great support... then I kept reading and sat back down.
ReplyDeleteSee, I know little about the actual effect of the proposed tax increase on the bottom line, but I could always support less tax. And I know little about the paid parking's relation to the local businesses, but could take your word that it hurts. Finally though, I know enough about the Green Communities Act to lose confidence in your whole post.
The "Stretch Code" would apply in the case of a repair just as the base code would apply. To say, "Imagine wanting to fix the hole in your roof, but being told you needed new windows and a new furnace" is false. Like any other restriction the energy code is costly, but from my limited experience it seems reasonable and a good-faith effort to improve the industry. With that, it seems to apply well in Newburyport where leadership in green initiatives are common. This code's minor affect would bring tax money (or rate premiums) back to us as a Green Community.
The conservative initiative to just say "no" to progress is loosing me. Let's make smart decisions about each progressive proposal. Choose to say "Heck No!" to the ones that really do not make sense, while letting the "sleeping dog lay" on initiatives that are fine for Newburyport.
-Joe Cheever