Having just been in Chicago, one of the most prevalent subject of conversation (despite the football season of course) is the ever-rising number of tickets being given to drivers. The Daley administration first made Chicago the most expensive parking city in the country with a corrupt deal that bordered on the criminal. The city was also accused of corrupt dealings with the company handling red-light ticking. However, none of this has curtailed the city contractors and officials clipping motorists for revenue in the form of endless ticketing. The latest outrage was the city reducing the time of yellow lights — a small tweak of a second that resulted in nearly $8 million in new tickets. Drivers are being treated as sources for revenue and hit with the equivalent of speed traps and short lights to generate more and more tickets.
Near my mother’s house in Chicago, she constantly warns me of such a trap that suddenly reduces car speed to a crawl. The reason is that it is being treated as a school zone even though there is no school nearby. All of her neighbors have been clipped despite driving less then 40 miles per hour on the main street.
The short yellow lights resulted in thousands of new $100 tickets from red light cameras. These cameras seem to function as a new hidden tax but the cost is not just cash by destroying the driving records of citizens – impacting insurance and, for many, their jobs.
Chicago may have picked up this idea from the Florida Department of Transportation which in 2011 secretly reduced the length of yellow lights and bringing in a windfall. Since most people have a common notion of the length of time, a small tweak can catch them off guard and snare their cars in a red light run.
It would seem logical that all yellow lights should have a uniform standard time to avoid this type of manipulation. At a minimum, Chicagoans have got to rise up against this type of revenue-generated traffic trap. People are struggling in Chicago and they do not need city officials manipulating lights to find new ways to siphon us more of their money (before they have to pay the over-priced meters of course).
Source: Time
Steg,
If small business owners find themselves over-burdened, they should change professions. There are lots of choices – from Walmart greeter to healthcare worker to long distance hauler.
Buck up, buttercup.
Paul,
You misjudge me as you often do with most of what you post.
I pay my taxes without complaint. That is what good citizens do.
If you want to consider what motivates me and my views, you have a better chance of assessing correctly if you assume I am your polar opposite.
From traffic lights to taxes! Didn’t someone promise that as President he was going through something line by line? Yes, but he hasn’t, and don’t hold your breath! Republicans should make that promise (vis a vis “Contract With America”) on tax code and all spending. We write tax code to incent activity. Do we ever repeal it when no longer a need? I could care less about budgeting; I want itemized spending. When John Kasich was Chair of Appropriations (?) he found same things being done in several places and worked to consolidate. I’m rooting for him in 2016!
docmadison – fyi I never misjudge you.
Ah, I get it. Rabid vile mouthed girls. Hooray for dictionary.com
Thanks, Olly.
Paul, I happen to note one of your words breaks the civility rule. I am not offended, but perhaps our incivility would be best handled by only allowing Shakespearian insults? It would be quite the thread, at least for us frothy clapper-clawed giglets. Whatever they may be.
Steg – are you referring to my 1:55 comment? Since it is not directed at anyone in particular and is a direct quote from a renowned playwright, I would be hard-pressed to see it as uncivil.
Good post Steg!
If you have a problem with someone finding the legal loopholes in our tax system, you should advocate for tax reform.
The outrage should not be, “He only paid X!”, but, “The law allowed him to only pay X! Curse his CPA or maybe he did his own taxes and has a superhuman knowledge of finance. That is not fair! The tax code should be written so even the working layman can interpret without the TAX of paying someone to interpret how much tax they owe!”
I have told my CPA I want to destroy her job. She laughed and said she wanted to, too. Opens more time for gardening/ being productive.
“More than half of small employers say the administrative burdens and paperwork associated with tax season pose the greatest harm to their businesses, according to a new survey by the National Small Business Association. Forty-seven percent say the actual tax bill hits their companies the hardest. On average, small-business owners spend more than 40 hours — the equivalent of a full workweek — filing their federal taxes every year. One in four spends at least three full weeks on the annual chore. There is also the expense of doing that work. Only 12 percent of employers filed their taxes on their own this year, down from 15 percent last year — and hiring help can be pricey. Half spent more than $5,000 on accountants and administrative costs last year. One in four spent more than $10,000.”
– quoted from Washington Post at Dan Mitchell’s blog: http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/tax-day-fantasies/
Extrapolate that out to all the small business owners, and you’ve got quite a nice little lump sum there! Or they’ve taken a couple lumps.
“[Thou] stale old mouse eaten dry cheese!!” (Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida)
Thou bitch-wolf’s son! Shakespeare (Troilus and Cressida)
Doc,
What Fox propaganda are you speaking of? For a clam, you certainly have plenty to say about other people’s wealth.
“You support that and call yourself a man of honor, integrity, and humility?”
I support the rule of law and I’m not at all surprised that has you questioning my honor, integrity and humility. Nicely done!
Until you can demonstrate where this individual violated the law, everything you are blathering about is pure, ideological nonsense.
Olly
Toss the Fox propaganda.
There is no envy of his wealth. I’m happy as a clam if the guy makes lots of money.
Just pay the taxes, man. $700 is really obscene.
You support that and call yourself a man of honor, integrity, and humility?
docmadison – admit it, you are jealous he only paid $700 in taxes and you want the phone number of his CPA. 🙂 I sure do.
Olly sees rants?
I suggest you wander over to the Mikva post. Sqeek was on a tear last night. All of us doin’ sex wrong are gonna make the zombies come back. Or something.
Doc,
Come on, I have to believe you are capable of making a point about our ridiculous, progressive tax system without some feeble, partisan rant. And I wouldn’t be so quick to sell out the Democrats; I’m sure you can also find one that was smart enough to only pay what was legally required.
By the way, I do agree our government (non-partisan) has a penchant for spending beyond their means. I don’t and I doubt you budget your household by running out to purchase everything your family wants and then sit down afterward to strategize how to pay for it. That would be moronic, but then again, that would explain the envy of another citizen’s wealth management strategy.
Optional stop signs; is that a metaphor of how the Executive Branch views the separation of powers?
Olly – actually it could be a fine metaphor.
And Paul often lectures us on morals. I can’t wait for his TED talk on patriotism.
docmadison – TED doesn’t allow conservatives to talk. I have watched a lot of TED talks and they are either liberal or neutral.
Olly,
Here’s a piece of the puzzle on that $17T debt… Check out the GOP candidate for governor in Connecticut. paid less than $700 in taxes for 2013,,,
Connecticut. Tatiana Schlossberg of the New York Times: “Thomas C. Foley, the Republican candidate for governor of Connecticut, paid $673 in federal taxes in 2013, despite personal wealth that allowed him to spend $11 million of his own money in a race for the same office in 2010…. The campaign released his 2010, 2011 and 2012 tax summaries last month; 2013 was the third year in a row that Mr. Foley effectively paid no federal income tax.” ..
Warms the cockles of your tax-paying heart, doesn’t it?
docmadison – if the guy figured out how to pay less than $800 in taxes that is the guy I want. And I want his CPA.
Sure we can, Olly.
Let’s start with paying for wars.
Doc,
I don’t know why you would advocate for not knowing the cost-benefit before implementation; isn’t that the ready, fire, aim methodology that has us at $17 trillion in debt?
We can do better than that.
Well, maybe there is a choice.
We can install visible timers, both for the red and another for the green, as Olly’s link illustrates (with an unknown cost-benefit and hope there is no catastrophe for Dusty’s mom) or
we can stop at yellow lights that are set with somewhat longer yellow times.
Your taxes. Your choice.
Not about traffic safety or maintaining traffic flow, but milking the motorist. Side effect bonanza for insurance companies. So the authorities are now doing business on the model of mafia scams?
Equation? Yeah, I’ll figure that out about the same time we “get people to concentrate on stopping safely, not counting ‘one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand…. while talking on their cell phone, eating some french fries,”
I like the suggestion to use visible timers. http://gizmodo.com/how-long-a-yellow-light-should-be-1647634895
Yellow means something different within different speed limits. The listing was generalized. Did you take a look at the equation?
Let’s get people to concentrate on stopping safely, not counting ‘one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand…. while talking on their cell phone, eating some french fries, and trying to remember the speed limit for this stretch of the highway..