I’m dealing with a local municipal office
that is greatly offended that the representative branch
is challenging their ability to arbitrarily tax citizens
at different rates.
Hereabouts when the local governments want higher taxes they raise the “fees.” We are paying water and garbage rates that are way more than required to provide water and garbage service. Every time commissioners talk about a need to raise taxes for something they hear back that raising taxes would imperil their jobs so the various authorities and agencies raise fees instead. The fees are supposed to be dedicated to the use for which they are ostensibly collected but I have found out that, as with federal trust funds, the money goes into a common pot, is in fact, general taxes for general use.