Posted by
Dave Kooker on Thursday, November 06, 2008 3:48:52 PM
The City of Jacksonville (Florida) has recently established a new way of taxing its constituents in Duval County. The taxes collected via the 7% sales tax, through property tax, and increased itemized city fees still cannot satisfy the city’s desire to further expand and ‘invest’ more money into government spending projects. In the first quarter of 2008, the uncontrolled City of Jacksonville’s spending of the approximate 1 billion approved annual budget was projected to go over budget for the current year and forthcoming years. Accessing any new taxes in this economic climate and the voter approval of the Florida Property Tax Amendment proved that any new city taxes were going to be a very politically unpopular towards City Hall.
Mike Hogan the Tax Collector for the City of Jacksonville (http://taxjax.com/default.aspx) decided to try something new to collect new tax revenue. Create a new tax in the name of the environment, Storm Water Fee, and have the city owned utility entity Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) print the new tax bill, distribute the new tax bill, and collect the new city tax for the general city tax revenue. This way the taxpayer’s anger was deflected from the actual politicians at City Hall who wanted the new tax revenue and allows JEA to take the brunt of the taxpayer anger. To add insult to the injury the new tax was backdated prior to the actual City Council’s passage date of the new tax.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/16137653/detail.html?subid=10101101
Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) is a public power and water utility entity owned and operated by the City of Jacksonville. The electric system grew from a department of city government to an independent authority created by the consolidation of city and county governments in 1967. On June 1, 1997, the water and sewer systems operated by the city since 1880 also became part of JEA's utility service offerings. JEA's governing body consists of a seven-member Board of Directors appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Jacksonville City Council.
By this taxation model, elected politicians can merely suggest more new taxes or increase existing taxes on the JEA utility bill and shield themselves from any political retribution from the taxpayer. If the taxpayer disagrees with the assigned taxes and protest, JEA can simply terminate the entire utility service of the taxpayer for non-payment.
I understand that public utilities like water, sewer, and electricity require a single infrastructure to provide effective services to the private citizen. Since public utilities is a monopoly, the public utility entity should be monitored by government regulation for potential pricing abuse. The charges from the public utilities should only be for utility services rendered. City government is a separate public entity, which governs the locality and collects taxes for approved initiatives of the local government. The two public entities should never combine power to make utility consumers dependant on paying city taxes. This very dangerous confiscation of power by the local government would make Joseph Stalin blush.
Do not be surprised if your local city government partners with public utilities in your municipality to force taxation obedience through public utilities in the near future.
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