Welcome to Louisiana, Tourists! Now Pay Our, I Mean, Your Taxes

August 22, 2013 10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjRxk9Kuwx4&feature=share&list=PL295D824D69C93D82

When you give someone your consent you usually agree that they can harm you in some way. A good example is “I consent to the cavity search, officer.” It is in this spirit we should view the recently signed and much ballyhooed “Consent Decree” the City of New Orleans signed with the National Government. The mob bosses at the inJustice Department have informed Mayor Landrieu that the Police & Jail Decrees will cost $18 and $33.5 MILLION over 5 years. This is money the city does not have which makes you wonder why Landrieu begged to give his “consent” to start with? So where will the funding come from?

Well, citizen of New Orleans, if you are watching this at home, you are sitting inside Landrieu’s ATM machine. Why is it that folks who own private property are always the first in line to finance the insatiable appetite of government and why are some land owners exempted because they stink at making money? You see, “non-profits” don’t have to pay any property tax on their $384 MILLION worth of NOLA land. And you would not believe what qualifies as a “non-profit” these days and here’s the worst part: you don’t even have to use the exempted property for “non-profit purposes”!

I often wonder how this entire web of people and organizations assigning to themselves a non-profit status, got started? Before there was an insidious “income tax code” there was little need for a “non-profit” designation. Outfits like orphanages, churches and soup kitchens offered goods and services for those in need and and asked those WITH wages and profits to support their efforts. Today, non-profit is an excuse to be in business without the awesome responsibility of being good at it.

To be fair, even if New Orleans taxed the non-profits the “consent decree” would still require tax increases. Of course another solution is the City could just stop consenting to things that cause it’s productive citizens economic pain.