Letter: Remember when one cared about their neighbors? Now its "Forever Tahoe Taxation"

Letter to the Editor: Bringing homemade chicken soup, shoveling snow or watering the flowers when on vacation used to be how people showed love to their neighbors. Unfortunately – and especially in recent weeks, loving your neighbor in Tahoe now means taxing your neighbor’s vacant house. It’s hard to fathom the existence of individuals energized to tax everyone else other than themselves. So, I’ve come up with the “Forever Tahoe Taxation Plan.”

I applaud those individuals who have the gumption to cover the community as human mules to have a petition signed. While this might be the means to accomplish their goal, it also creates global warming, consumes excessive levels of oxygen which are already minimized in the mountain community and further accelerates climate change. These human mules need to be taxed for the consumption of oxygen and ongoing environmental damage. Like California gasoline taxes, these human mules need to be excessively taxed. Let’s start with the “Human Mule Tax Plan” at a rate of $2.00 per step. This is only fair as they will tax themselves before they tax others, will greatly benefit the environment, and will Keep Tahoe Blue forever!

Anyone signing any petition to increase taxes is immediately taxed $50,000. If you want to increase taxes on others, then it’s only fair that you lead the effort by taxing yourself first.

The press enjoys far too many freedoms; it's time they are also taxed.  Any reporter encouraging a new tax proposal needs to pay a tax of $15,000 per written/spoken word.  It’s only fair to tax those with unlimited access to the dissemination of speech.

Any City Council Member who authors or co-authors any bill that includes an increase in taxation should be taxed at $500,000 of personal and $1,000,000 of business/investment income with no opportunity for tax deductions or credits. It’s only fair for those authorizing new taxation to pay their fair share at the onset.

Supply each City Council Member with a pedometer; upon voting for any new tax bill, all City Council Members voting yes will need to pay a tax of $500 per step or $500 per tenth of a mile if driving/cycling on route to that meeting. This might be taxation in arrears, but it’s only fair for politicians to experience some centralized pain themselves.

Here’s an even more progressive thought … let’s have these human mules staff each intersection throughout Tahoe. With a $5 tax when looking both ways at intersections, Tahoe can quickly collect $15 per driver at each intersection. Since EV drivers don’t pay any gasoline tax, EV cars will need to pay $50 when looking both ways at intersections or a total of $100. It’s only fair for EV drivers to share the tax burden of using the roads everyone else maintains.
 
For the record, none of the above concepts should ever see the light of day. However, a significant percentage of the progressive population (aka the human mules) need to heal of their jealousy and envy of the wealth of others. In the spirit of Easter Sunday, let’s love our neighbors and not tax them.

Sincerely,
Todd McIntyre