"We not only run your water and sewer systems, we now demand control of your health care. We're the Government and we're here to help."
Posted on 04/09/2008 7:37:26 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20
Imagine that your city bans you from watering you lawn, washing your car, and urgently asks you to conserve water. You do what you are told. You are a good little citizen who was doing your part to conserve water during a drought. Then your city council realizes that you did too good of a job conserving water, and now the government is going to lose millions of dollars in revenue. What's the solution ... raise the price on water!
Well that's exactly what's happening in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Charlotte City Council approved a steep increase in water and sewer rates ... more than double the normal annual increase ... in order to make up for lower water sales, which stem from the fact that the government told people to stop watering their lawns. The council members who voted for the bill said they had little choice, and then they blamed it on the utility department, saying that is should have warned them earlier of a revenue crisis.
http://www.charlotte.com/breaking_news/story/571180.html
Essentially, this increase equals more than a 7% city property tax hike on a home of about $200,000. The higher rates will compensate for an expected $50 million shortfall through the end of the 2009 fiscal year.
It would never occur to these numbskulls to dig a few wells.
just as crazy when the ‘stop smoking Nazis’ win and smoking decreases.... oops, we needed that tax money!
Go back to the days of cisterns and collect your own water.
the government taxes teh bejesus out of cigarettes, but then wants everybody to quit, and harrasses those who don’t.
what happens when they DO quit?
You would think after getting struck so many time by this law the lawmakers would learn a lesson, but nooooooooo, they just keep showing their stupidity and it seems no one sees that they actually ARE sorta stupid.
That would uh, make sense.
In Dallas we haven't built any new water reservoirs for years. The population is exploding especially in the North (Plano, McKinney, Frisco, etc.) and as water shortages happen in the summer guess what you hear on the nightly news? You guessed it, “Global Warming.”
We had so much rain that they had to open the over flow gates and let water run off! But it ‘s the size of the reservoirs that's to small when 6 million folks are sucking on water in the summer, but is there any construction on new reservoirs? Nope.
That's what we pay these people for. To make smart decisions and look ahead and lecture us about “Global Warming.”
That will run you afoul of federal wetlands legislation.
I am not making a joke.
Is there no-one in government who can think beyond the end of their nose?
Let’s see how many of the Charlotte City Council get re-elected when their terms are up. (I’ll guess 95% of them).
"We not only run your water and sewer systems, we now demand control of your health care. We're the Government and we're here to help."
what happens when they DO quit? Raise taxes, of course. Is there any other way to solve such a disasterous situation?
Keeping tank of sorts in my backyard nowhere near a wetland?
I tell all my nonsmoking friends here in cant smoke anywhere illinois that they shoud thank smokers for keeping taxes low. When everyone quits or quits buying in illinois guess who will get to pay then.
I remember that there was a story (FR Thread) a while back that said Californians driving less and using hybrid/fuel efficient vehicles are causing the hoped for gas tax revenue to not be there.
So, they were going to vote to raise the gas tax.
You two guys have got to be joking!!!! Do you really believe that they woulod even dream of such an obvious solution, in lieu of stealing some extra money from the peasants????
OOOOOOPS!!! Goofed! p
woulod = would
The good citizens should drag the city council outside and curb stomp them...what’s it gonna take for people in this country to rise up and say...enuff is enuff!!
California just raised tobacco taxes significantly for just that reason.
The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again.
How can they when they can't even see the end of it -- its being so firmly stuck up(you know where) so the party bosses will let them run for office again next time around?
Perhaps Dallas should stop trying to take land in East Texas to build reservoirs?
“The council members who voted for the bill said they had little choice, and then they blamed it on the utility department, saying that is should have warned them earlier of a revenue crisis.”
Oh...my...god!
Once again, I see technology coming to the rescue.
In the home of the future, there is an existing technology that is going to radically reduce water use.
There is a new water filter that uses nanotechnology to purify large amounts of water with just 1/4th the energy of reverse osmosis. Simply put, it is made of nanotubes just wide enough to pass water molecules, nothing larger. This means water so pure that you need to add a little sea salt to it for flavor and trace minerals.
The filters themselves are low maintenance. So this means that if a home system separates out solid waste with just enough liquid to “flush” it into the sewer, the much larger amount of “just a little dirty” water can be re-used. This might reduce individual use from 75 gallons of water a day to maybe 20 gallons—some of which can be used outdoors for the lawns we can easily have with that much water saved.
Even though the vast majority of water is used for industrial and agricultural use, and just 5-10% is used residentially.
They demand residential conservation not to save water, but because they think that “raising environmental awareness” is more important than actually *doing* anything, the bastards.
By conserving water, we will save ourselves money, and the government will increase the price of water, because they want the money. But otherwise, every part of the US will have more than enough fresh water.
And technology gets the credit for it, not Al Gore or “raised awareness.”
Sure, they always do. It's getting worse, because with each massive idiocy perpetrated by the Charlotte City Council, more people with brains move out of Charlotte.
Or cut a few costs.
Wonder if any bad or marginally performing employee was laid off, salaries or benefits cut or frozen, etc., or the shortfall will be shifted totally to the consumer/taxpayer.
You’re not from around here, are you?
“Government stupidity”. Total redundancy.
I live outside Charlotte but still inside the reach of Jennifer Roberts and Parks Helms. Wierd though how city council still controls my life. I can’t vote for them, but I can’t escape them. Maybe Mayor for life McCrory will veto it.
I'll have to get the "Rhino Times" next week and find out :-).
And institute a miles driven tax!
This happens in Colorado all the time.
(Not the well digging..... the stupidity).
There’s a math statement that says “Division by zero is ‘undefined’” . Mathematically, as the denominator approaches zero, the answer approaches infinity. Infinity is an unknown and undefined quantity.
Therefore:
Government Stupidity = 1/0
They charged me for 8,001 more gallons than I used. They are supposed to reread it today.
How are they off by 8,000 gallons?!?!?
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