NY governor proposes 88 new fees and taxes to fix massive state deficit

[speech]

NY governor proposes 88 new fees and taxes to fix massive state deficit
Gov. David Paterson has proposed a so-called 'iPod tax' on downloaded music and entertainment services to help his state close a $15.4 billion budget deficit.

However, Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) products aren't Paterson's only targets. He has proposed 88 new fees and taxes that go far beyond, including on movie tickets, taxi rides, soda, beer, wine, cigars, massages, cable and satellite TV.

That's just one aspect of Paterson’s proposed $121.1 billion budget released yesterday. The budget attempts to make state government leaner while relying on a wave of new taxes and fees that will be passed down to businesses.

Ipod tax? no problem, like anyone pays for music anymore. The few fools still paying for music will start downloading free music too.
http://waronyou.com/forums/index.php?topic=4495.new#new

[anaconda]

Funny how taxes seem to be the proposed solution from the politicians. Instead of massive spending cuts.

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23 July 08



Bureau of Contrived Revenue
Dept. of Ubiquitous Parking Fines,
Coerced Compliance Division
P.O. Box 30420
Los Angeles, CA 90030



Dear Lucky Citizen Whose Secure Salary And Benefits Are Owing To Beleaguered American Taxpayers, Many Of Whom Are Worse Off Than You And Keen To Do Your Job, Enthusiastically And Cheerfully, For Ten Percent Less Pay:

Enclosed please find a check not for the $110 that was demanded of me in an Official-read-that-intimidating fashion but in the amount of $60, which constitutes payment of a $50 street sweeping violation and a $10 late fee. That ten-dollar late fee accumulated while I was immobilized by SHOCK at receipt of Official Demand that I hand over $100…fifty dollars for a street sweeping violation and fifty dollars for not having paid the street sweeping violation as quickly as Officialdom would like. Can we talk about how many times I have been kept waiting by Officialdom without one red cent as compensation for my time? I would remind Officialdom and Professionaldom that EVERYONE’S most meaningful asset is time…’pressed for time’ is not the exclusive purvey of Big Shots and Bureaucrats.

I didn’t hop to like a model citizen to pay the Mea Culpa Money for the oh-so-unsociable infraction of blocking one car-length of curb from the spit-and-promise swoosh of gas-guzzling heavy equipment because I was immobilized by SHOCK that the ubiquitous fines for Parking Wrong…in a sprawling metropolis that has too few parking spaces for too many cars and streets that are in Banana Republic condition…had shot from $38 to $50. I remember when they were $17. Or maybe I’m confusing that with the old PSA midnight flight between SFO AND LAX. For sure, I remember when the high crime of parking on the wrong side of the street was $28, up from $23.

Me, I think $50 is extra-ordinary enough that it should incite independent investigation into the expenditures of Municipal Brass, beginning with Mayor Antonio Villagairossa’s restaurant tabs. HOWEVER, comma, capriciously doubling the amount in one swift, fell swoop? That, I submit, is usurious. It smacks of the school bully extorting lunch money.

Well and truly, I believe this matter warrants review by Court and Media…the OTHER court. Y’know why? Because in talking amongst the People…who unfailingly agree with me about Fines As Budget Stimulus, incidentally…someone mentioned a Bend Over Double Up experience with the kicker of never having seen a ticket on their car.

Need I point out the incentive…here and there, occasionally but regularly, read that systematically…to NOT affix the ticket to the windshield or to affix it precariously? It would be lucrative indeed for the City if, as often as discreetly possible, parking criminals would be notified by mail…at double the amount of the original fine. I’m not saying it’s so. I’m saying there’s motive and opportunity.

And I am not without cause in suggesting it. Having moved into a Los Angeles apartment after many years in a Beverly Hills house, I was unfamiliar with the new utility bills and, frankly, inattentive. Moving is traumatic. Moving under duress is more traumatic. What can I say?

A year and half later, when my Department of Water bill shot up along with the rest of the Costs of Living, my attention was drawn to a particular aspect of the increase, notably Solid Waste Resources. What’s THAT? Blue bin recycling pick-up, I was told…except that blue bin recycling pick up does not occur at not-my building. Presumably, the City knows where it picks up Blue Bin recycling and yet, curiously, month after month after month after month after month after month after month after month after month after month after month after month after month after month after month after month, at least, two of four tenants were being charged for a service that the City was not providing. Wanna know how much was the credit to my account attributable to a year and a half of bogus billing…a credit for which I had to argue, incidentally, despite the money being rightfully mine? ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FOUR DOLLARS and 91 cents.

The City would not reveal which other tenant was being wrongly charged, which I thought was pretty crummy. What could I do, but mention the Error vs. Fraud to all of them? One of them has lived here for eleven years. That would be SOME credit, eh? I think all Los Angeles renters had better check their DWP bills for institutionalized-but-erroneous Solid Waste Resources charges, don’t you?

Thank you in advance if you are able to please waive the extra-ordinary penalty of $50…I am keeping a fearful eye on my Permanent Record, as I am plainly intended to do. If you unable to waive this fine and thereby fully absolve me of this Violation, kindly consider this formal…official, in my world…request for advice as to whether my failure to pay this round-numbered but otherwise arbitrary and, I contend, excessive addendum to an already debatable fine shall provide L.A.P.D. or/and other Enforcers with “just” cause to interfere with my movements or impound my car.



Very sincerely,




cc: Governor Arnold Schwarzzenegger
ImplausibleEndeavors.com





****


9 September 2008



Los Angeles City Council
Los Angeles City Hall
200 N. Spring St.
Room 480
Los Angeles, CA 90012



Council Members:

You cannot imagine how tiresome and demoralizing it is to write letters to unresponsive Powers That Be. The Ruling Elite, among which you sit, has grown as impervious as it has imperious. I implore you to poke your heads out of your ivory towers and consider the position of an Average American Angeleno.

I do not suggest that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villagairossa regularly comes up in conversation but, when he does, Antonio Villagairossa is regularly called a Gang Member. I recently heard an afternoon Los Angeles Talk Radio host call Antonio Villagairossa a Gang Member right on the air.

Maybe Antonio Villagairossa doesn’t know that so many people in Los Angeles call him a Gang Member because he is so seldom in Los Angeles? Maybe Antonio Villagairossa likes the street cred of being called a Gange Member?

My mayor is casually and consistently called a Gang Member, and everyone is just kind of okay with that. Me, I’ve lived in Los Angeles a long time and when I hear Gang Member, I take heed. When I hear Gang Member, I think retaliation.

I formally and publicly beseech the City Council to intercede on my behalf by waiving the penalty portion of a parking ticket and, in practical consideration of the surreal reality that my mayor is called a gang member, I also formally and publicly decry retribution.

While my car was in for service…not unrelated to the wear and tear of driving on banana republic-grade roads…I parked a loaner car on the street and promptly received a $50 street cleaning violation. I remember when those were $17.

I was so outraged at being charged FIFTY DOLLARS for possibly causing a street sweeper to miss a spot on streets featuring insufficient parking and ATROCIOUS repair that the ticket went into a “letter required” file. And then I took a trip. By the time I got back, I discovered that the $50 ticket issued on 4/1/08 had shot to $100 on 5/28/08, less than 60 days later.

I am told by no-last-name Marissa, of the “management team” that oversees the Department of Parking Violations, that penalty fees and the rate at which they are MULTIPLIED are determined by the City Council and the Department of Transportation.

Straight to double the amount? I recognize that the city is hard-up for cash and I appreciate that nice round numbers, quickly doubled, constitute a steady supply of cash to municipal coffers…but it isn’t right.

I contend that doubling fines at 60 days is usurious, and I want it reviewed by a higher authority. But who IS the higher authority? The Governor? The courts? With whom do I file a complaint? Filing a complaint with the same people who set the penalty fees and their rates of multiplication is obviously a waste of time…you already think that what you’re doing is okay.

Are there not laws against usury, or is that only in the Bible?

Segue to a couple quick examples of municipal fiscal folly.

You would have awarded $2.7 MILLION dollars to a firefighter who had been hazed, despite confirmation of his having also participated in the hazing of others.

The settlement was vetoed by Antonio Villagairossa…who sat at a booth opposite me in expensive Pepone’s, in Brentwood, wearing a white waistcoat that gleamed like his toothy grin and drinking decanted wine. Antonio Villagairossa, who declined to return from a London vacation though an earthquake hit Los Angeles while California burned.

Now segue to another adventure in municipal madness. A year and a half into an apartment, I discovered that the City of Los Angeles had been charging me monthly for blue bin recycling pickup that does not occur at my address. At my address, recycling is picked up by homeless people who, I am here to tell you, scare the piss out of you if you come around the corner upon an impromptu salvage operation.

By the time a hefty rate hike drew attention to the “erroneous” billing, I had paid baseless charges totaling $174.91. And I had only been in the building for 18 months. Another tenant, of either 3 years or 11 years, was also being wrongly charged, but the DWP wouldn’t tell me which one and I do not know whether the other tenant pursued a credit.

MONTHS after I discovered the bogus billing, I still hadn’t received a credit. Enter Jose Garcia, Superintendent of Solid Waste Resources. Jose Garcia insisted that according to his chain of command (Richard Wozniak, Manager Solid Resources; Alex Helon, Assistant Director of the Bureau of Sanitation; Enrique Zaldivar, Director of the Bureau of Sanitation; Antonio Villagairossa, Mayor and rumored Gang Member; Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor), he couldn’t return my own money to me until I jumped through a few more hoops. Notably, he insisted that I bother my landlord for a copy of his private trash pickup service contract and mail it to the DWP.

Huh?

The City of Los Angeles (spending taxpayer money) had already sent someone to the address to verify what city computers surely show, that the service for which I was being billed is, in fact, not provided. And yet, somehow, the onus is on ME to provide further documentation? I don’t think so.

I told Jose Garcia that if I was obliged to bother my landlord for his personal paperwork, I would also suggest that this man who owns upwards of 80 apartment buildings advise his many other tenants to check THEIR Department of Water & Power bills for the possibility that years of bogus charges warrant sizeable credits.

Jose Garcia actually said to me, “When the amount was smaller, people didn’t notice so much” as though the noticing-part were the only fly in the ointment. I told Jose Garcia that systematic fraudulent billing sounds very like racketeering.

A credit of $174.91 appeared on my next bill, without the “required” paperwork.

It took, however, more than four MONTHS for the city to issue a refund of my OWN money…by way of a credit on my account, incidentally, not a refund…but the city would double my parking fine at eight WEEKS? Again, I don’t think so.

You cannot have it both ways. I have paid $60. Fifty dollars plus a late fee of $10. But according to Management Team Player Marissa, the Department of Parking Violations must stand by its demand for an additional $71, which is to say $131 on a $50 ticket.

To wit, I have just received a threatening letter from the Parking Violations Bureau, informing me that the City of Los Angeles has authorized LDC Collections Systems to “use all legal means available to collect this outstanding amount.” LDC Collections Systems vows that it will “continue to pursue this matter until payment is received in full.”

Sounds menacing, don’t you agree? Copies of relevant documentation are enclosed, along with a request that you ponder the misallocation of resources attendant to such correspondence.

I hereby request that you intercede to waive the $71 balance and clear my corresponding DMV and credit records or, conversely, that you authorize an additional refund to me of $205.91 (a second helping of the $174.91, for tardiness, plus three ten-dollar late fees, plus an inexplicable dollar) in order to resolve the city’s false and systematic charges for solid waste pick-up with the same penalty magnification that the City Council sees fit to assess me on a parking fine. Upon receipt of $205.91, either as cash payment or as additional credit to my Department of Water & Power account, I will promptly send $71 to the Department of Parking Violations.

Fair is fair. Equally fair but more efficient would be waiving the $71.

While Management Marissa assured me that the contested amount could not result in impound of my car, I neglected to clarify whether it could result in detention of ME. Not so many years ago, it would have been unthinkable to have to ask that question but, well, conditions on the ground have changed. In addition to rapacious taxes and penalties, statistics bear out that government is increasingly inclined toward incarceration. That in mind, I will appreciate your promptest attention and response.



Thank you,



cc: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Congressman Henry Waxman

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10 December 2008



LDC Collection Systems
P.O. Box 30087
Los Angeles, CA 90030-0087



Sirs:

MY ABILITY TO OBTAIN CREDIT IS IN JEOPARDY?

Are you serious? We are witnessing the collapse of what the Baby Boom generation fondly knew as Western Civilization, and you are threatening me with my Permanent Record? Good one.

As you are not a Player in this drama, it would be a waste of precious time to bring you up to speed. Suffice it to say that I will not pay the disputed sum of $71, and that the City of Los Angeles was thusly apprised – which is to say, the City of Los Angeles was aware of an adjusted risk – before they passed the balance along to you according to practice.

It’s the practice that is of interest. Did or did NOT the City of Los Angeles inform you of the reduced probability of collection of this disputed sum? You, like every other person of age and sense, will have learned by now that the Mortgage Meltdown turns precisely the camouflaging of risk.

Congress and I await your input.



Good luck to all of us in the New Year,



cc: United States Congress
Governor Schwarzenegger
Los Angeles City Council

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10 December 2008



Los Angeles City Council
Los Angeles City Hall
200 N. Spring St.
Room 480
Los Angeles, CA 90012



You don’t even deserve the respect of proper salutation.

In response to formal registration of grievance, as though you are impervious to common sense and reason itself, you throw me into America’s gothic Collection Industry?

Fuck you. I’m telling.

Also – we’re tryin’ to tag the Bad Guys in the Mortgage Meltdown – Congress, the public and I need to know whether you informed LDC Collection Systems about their decreased probability of collection when you fed me into the system by which they threaten my future. Accurate appraisal of risk, it’s the name of the game.

Kindly advise.




cc: God
Everyone I Know
Anyone Who Will Listen

[speech]

wtf happen to lower taxes. lol criminals

[tmosley]

10 December 2008



Los Angeles City Council
Los Angeles City Hall
200 N. Spring St.
Room 480
Los Angeles, CA 90012



You don’t even deserve the respect of proper salutation.

In response to formal registration of grievance, as though you are impervious to common sense and reason itself, you throw me into America’s gothic Collection Industry?

Fuck you. I’m telling.

Also – we’re tryin’ to tag the Bad Guys in the Mortgage Meltdown – Congress, the public and I need to know whether you informed LDC Collection Systems about their decreased probability of collection when you fed me into the system by which they threaten my future. Accurate appraisal of risk, it’s the name of the game.

Kindly advise.




cc: God
Everyone I Know
Anyone Who Will Listen

LOL, that's awesome. Did you write those? If so, I commend you for it.

[A. Havnes]

NY tax payers will probably start demanding a bailout, too!

[cindy25]

more business for the Indian reservations