Re: State Rail - No, State Joke. [NSW]

["Bradley Torr" <truenorth@one.net.au.SPAMTRAP>]

Tezza <tezza2000@dingoblue.net.au> wrote in article
<3b17bf23$0$25478$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au>...

> | Local governments send rate notices to resident property owners

> But is neither a tax nor a tax imposed on residents.

"Rates" is just another name for "real property tax". A tax by any other
name (levy, compulsory contribution, rate, tarriff, excise, royalty) is
still a tax (though legalistic nitpickers may beg to disagree - you know
who I'm referring to! :-) )

> Yeah, right. With no restrictions, the local self-important dickheads
would
> know no bounds.

Well, if a local council or regional authority such as a school district or
a public transport authority wants to hike taxes with impunity, it can wave
a lot of investment, business growth and residential growth goodbye. It can
be seen in cities across America - commerce and residents in high-taxing
inner cities with bloated bureaucracies and social programs have been
fleeing for low-tax suburbia - many inner cities have been using tax breaks
and concessions and subsidies to attract business back into the city
centre.

If people and business don't like the high taxation in a particular council
or even a particular state, they will vote with their feet. Same with
housing costs - an unprecedented number of people are moving to Wollongong,
the Central Coast and the Southern Highlands and other fringe regions (one
of them being myself), and commuting to the metropolitan core simply
because the cost of housing, and insurance, etc. is so high nowadays in
metro Sydney.

Regards
BT