DC is NEXT!!!

[ratioci nation]

Originally posted by chimblysweep:
  Come on, though.  It's not about time spent at work alone.  Suburbanites expect to drive our roads, have traffic lights, police service, street lights, cleaned sidewalks, litter cans, parking checkers (or maybe not?!), and more.  It's the whole package and they aren't paying up.
 
 I say, until we get our commuter tax, let's just shut it all off downtown.  no cops, no lights, no cleaning, nothin'.  Commuters don't want to pay up?  Give 'em what they paid for.
 
 

yeah dc will do great without all the taxes from those businesses

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

Suburbanites DO pay DC taxes...at bars, restaurants, shops, etc.
 
 Should VA and MD charge a DC resident a tax every time they want to drive out to Home Depot or Target, or go anywhere outside of the city for that matter?
 
 

Originally posted by chimblysweep:
  Come on, though.  It's not about time spent at work alone.  Suburbanites expect to drive our roads, have traffic lights, police service, street lights, cleaned sidewalks, litter cans, parking checkers (or maybe not?!), and more.  It's the whole package and they aren't paying up.
 
 I say, until we get our commuter tax, let's just shut it all off downtown.  no cops, no lights, no cleaning, nothin'.  Commuters don't want to pay up?  Give 'em what they paid for.
 
   

Originally posted by Got Balls?:
  I work 8.5 hours a day, lunches included. Subtract out vacation days and holidays, and I estimate I work 1938 hours of a possible 8760 hours of the year. Thus, that's 22% of my total time, not 40%. And I use the resources of a federally owned building, none of which comes from DC taxes.
 
    But as a DC resident, I probably spend 90% of my total time in the District. Still, I don't agree with a commuter tax.
 
 
   

Originally posted by Bags:
  Will a VA resident call for a Fairfax ambulance when he/she tumbles down the stairs at work?  Will the Montgomery County Sherrif's dept send in a proportionate number of cops to its residents who work here when there's an emergency midday on a Wednesday?
 
 If you work in DC, you spend probably 40% of your time here, using services for the betterment of your work life.
 
     

Originally posted by Got Balls?:
  I would disagree. Income taxes are collected to use on services for the betterment of the residents. Why should someone have to pay income tax to a city/state in which they do not reside, and thus do not receive any of the benefits that the residents of that city/state do receive?
 

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[markie]

Originally posted by Got Balls?:
 
 Should VA and MD charge a DC resident a tax every time they want to drive out to Home Depot or Target, or go anywhere outside of the city for that matter?
 
   

There are at least 2 Home Depots in the district aren't there?
 
 But by going to stores out of state you are instantly supporting the state with sales tax.
 
 I think the issue here is that two thirds of personal income earned in DC is not DC taxable. It comes down to the rationalisation, do you want the city you work in to be nice or a shithole? Someone has to pay.

[mankie]

All you DC residents are really quite militant aren't you.....remember. MD and VA gave you land for free so you could have your little city..SO SHUT THE FUCK UP OR WE'LL TAKE OUR LAND BACK!

[Bags]

Your federally-owned building has its own police, fire and roads?  Very cool.
 
 

Originally posted by Got Balls?:
  I work 8.5 hours a day, lunches included. Subtract out vacation days and holidays, and I estimate I work 1938 hours of a possible 8760 hours of the year. Thus, that's 22% of my total time, not 40%. And I use the resources of a federally owned building, none of which comes from DC taxes.
 
    But as a DC resident, I probably spend 90% of my total time in the District. Still, I don't agree with a commuter tax.
 
 
   

Originally posted by Bags:
  Will a VA resident call for a Fairfax ambulance when he/she tumbles down the stairs at work?  Will the Montgomery County Sherrif's dept send in a proportionate number of cops to its residents who work here when there's an emergency midday on a Wednesday?
 
 If you work in DC, you spend probably 40% of your time here, using services for the betterment of your work life.
 
   

Originally posted by Got Balls?:
  I would disagree. Income taxes are collected to use on services for the betterment of the residents. Why should someone have to pay income tax to a city/state in which they do not reside, and thus do not receive any of the benefits that the residents of that city/state do receive?
 

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[skonster]

Um, Virginia took its land back in the 1850s...that's why you have arlington.  You should be very proud.  And if Maryland took over DC at least we'd be able to have a say in congress finally.
 
 

Originally posted by Bollocks:
  All you DC residents are really quite militant aren't you.....remember. MD and VA gave you land for free so you could have your little city..SO SHUT THE FUCK UP OR WE'LL TAKE OUR LAND BACK!

[Bags]

I'd be happy to be part of Maryland.  Really.  Take us, and our expenses, and all those federal and international entities that won't pay the state anything.
 
 Y'all are overlooking that commuter taxes of some sort are common.  Again, DC is 'different,' but gets no CREDIT for being different.
 
   

Originally posted by skonster:
  Um, Virginia took its land back in the 1850s...that's why you have arlington.  You should be very proud.  And if Maryland took over DC at least we'd be able to have a say in congress finally.
 
   

Originally posted by Bollocks:
  All you DC residents are really quite militant aren't you.....remember. MD and VA gave you land for free so you could have your little city..SO SHUT THE FUCK UP OR WE'LL TAKE OUR LAND BACK!

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[markie]

Originally posted by Bollocks:
  SO SHUT THE FUCK UP OR WE'LL TAKE OUR LAND BACK!

That would be the best scanrio. Then the taxes on DC earnings could actually go to DC. Nice job.

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

Triple the taxes on the condecending, "We're cooler than the suburbanites" city dwellers who insist on having a DC address and ,as payment for the conveniences of living in the city. Call is a Coolness Convenience tax.
 
 
   [/qb][/QUOTE]
 I think the issue here is that two thirds of personal income earned in DC is not DC taxable. It comes down to the rationalisation, do you want the city you work in to be nice or a shithole? Someone has to pay. [/QB][/QUOTE]

[Bags]

We already pay more, Balls.  Which includes the services commuters utilize every day.

[Celeste]

Originally posted by Bags:
  Will a VA resident call for a Fairfax ambulance when he/she tumbles down the stairs at work?  Will the Montgomery County Sherrif's dept send in a proportionate number of cops to its residents who work here when there's an emergency midday on a Wednesday?

they'd probably be better off if they did

[mankie]

Originally posted by mark e smith:
   

Originally posted by Bollocks:
  SO SHUT THE FUCK UP OR WE'LL TAKE OUR LAND BACK!

That would be the best scanrio. Then the taxes on DC earnings could actually go to DC. Nice job. [/b]

Not to mention you'll get the smoking ban you all want....and the ambulance won't get lost on the way to your emergency....and your kids might actually learn something other than gang warfare technics in school...and your cops will speak English instead of ebonics.....you'll pay 1% less in sales tax....but you'll still have a incompetent and ignorant Dept. of motor vehicles though.....and you'll have to go on safari to find a government shop that sells liquor.

[Dandy01]

Originally posted by JGatz:
  If it happens in the old country you know it's coming to DC.
 
 
 Ireland's Pioneering Smoking Ban Starts on Monday
 Wed Mar 24, 2004 07:54 AM ET
 
 By Gideon Long
 DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland is set to stamp out smoking in bars and restaurants starting Monday in the biggest such crackdown yet seen in Europe but one that has angered the owners of some of the country's renowned pubs.
 
 The ban is being viewed a test case for the rest of the European Union and comes in the wake of similar campaigns in several U.S. cities including New York.
 
 From midnight Sunday, it will be illegal to smoke in virtually all workplaces, closed public spaces and on public transport, with fines of up to $3,825 for transgressors.
 
 The government says the ban will help save some of the 7,000 lives lost to smoking-related diseases in Ireland each year and will, for the first time, protect the country's entire workforce from passive smoking.
 
 But critics say it will diminish Ireland's famous pub culture, drive tourists from the Emerald Isle and cost hundreds of jobs in the catering, entertainment and tobacco industries.
 
 Above all, they say, it will turn publicans into policemen, forcing them to confront defiant smokers who, perhaps emboldened by drink, refuse to heed the "no smoking" signs plastered across the walls of their pubs.
 
 "We're deeply disappointed that... the government insists on railroading this ban through in its current form," said the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI), which represents some 6,000 publicans across the country.
 
 A BLUEPRINT FOR EUROPE
 
 The ban, driven into law by Health Minister Micheal Martin, has wide public support. A recent survey by pollsters TNS shows that twice as many people say they are more likely to visit a smoke-free pub than a pub where smoking is allowed.
 
 Governments across Europe are looking to it as a test case, and the EU's health commissioner David Byrne says he would like to see the experiment in his homeland mirrored across the bloc.
 
 Non-EU Norway is introducing a similar ban from June 1.
 
 But other countries favor a more conciliatory approach, coaxing employers into providing smoking areas on their premises rather than forcing them to ban it.
 
 "We prefer to encourage voluntary agreements rather than imposing laws," Danish health ministry official Lene Brondum Jensen told Reuters in Copenhagen.
 
 "We think there is a greater possibility that people will abide by something if they succumb to it voluntarily rather than being forced to do something."
 
 Ireland estimates it spends one billion euros a year treating its population of just under four million from the effects of tobacco.
 
 IRELAND LEADS THE WAY
 
 It is ironic that Ireland, not known for its healthy lifestyle, is leading the rest of Europe in banning smoking.
 
 The Irish are among the region's heaviest drinkers and, thanks in part to a high-cholesterol diet, have one of the bloc's highest incidences of heart disease.
 
 For some in Ireland, a cigarette is as much a part of the pub experience as lively banter and a pint of Guinness. It is all part of what the Irish call "the craic" (the fun).
 
 But reformers say it is time to move on.
 
 Michael O'Shea, Chief Executive of the Irish Heart Foundation, says he hopes the ban will herald a new era for Irish society -- "an era when health is set as a priority over other interests."
 
 
 
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that's funny, somehow I had a feeling you were referring to the ban from the title - perhaps from hanging out at the Warehouse last night where peeps had to take their smokes outside.

[keithstg]

Originally posted by Bags:
 [QB] Your federally-owned building has its own police, fire and roads?  Very cool.
 [QUOTE
 
 Well, mine does, anyway.

[eltee]

Originally posted by sonickteam2:
   

Originally posted by El Tee:
  Either they suck it up and don't smoke or embrace the cold.

strange opinions coming from a smoker      [/b]

In this case, observer not partaker.