Mar 13, 2010

A True Tea Party Issue

  
    Lisa Osburn of The Birmingham News reports on an issue that should be getting more attention than it is. The key issue as written in the story:

The Warrior City Council passed an ordinance in December to collect a 1.5 percent sales tax in the city's police jurisdiction, which extends 1.5 miles outside the city limits and into western Blount County. The practice is common in Alabama and has been upheld in several court cases.


     So a municipality can impose a tax outside it's boundaries? How can that possibly be legal? If there is a poorly maintained road just outside Warrior that causes me to have an accident, can I sue Warrior? Do people in the "police jurisdiction" have the right to vote in city elections? Heck, under this doctrine, Warrior should be allowed to go put parking meters in front of the stores in that "police jurisdiction" and charge for parking! Isn't this a violation of "taxation without representation"? Where are the Tea Party demonstrations?

1 comment:

  1. I don't understand this either. What about overlapping jurisdictions; Prattville straddles two counties.

    Do adjoining municipalities tax each other's jurisdictions as well as their own?

    The mind boggles.

    ReplyDelete