To the Editor:
The city continues to unearth new sources of revenue on the back of its citizens. Warning: should you be a small business with a proper business license of decades but a fantasy business name on your door in addition to the name on your license, watch out! Currently, the Department of Finance, Revenue Division, quoting one of its highly motivated employees, is now doing something innovative: “We have never checked whether all Old Town businesses have had proper licenses for names they have never done business as (dba)!” Meaning: the Finance Department is going from door to door to make sure that only your licensed name is on it, not some appealing designation in addition. Delinquency notices are now slipped under your door, demanding not only a second license ($10 at City Hall) just for your fantasy name but also requiring you to file property tax reports and sundry other forms with fees, fines and interest attached. Particular attention is given to $30 phones recently acquired from RadioShack and 25-year old furniture inherited from shadows of the past. To be reported at market value: if you happen to have five old chairs perhaps selling for $5 at Goodwills, you will be taxed 20 percent on $25 on these chairs for their — and your! — life time. Prohibited: even a listing of the fantasy name on the building directory as it is considered “advertising.” No matter whether you put it there or some other unknown building agent. The alternative to the above administrative and financial hassle: remove the fantasy name from your door and any other mention anywhere else.
Conclusion: just as with high density development and the dismantling of affordable housing to be replaced with new high property tax units — think Beauregard or Madison/Montgomery Streets — the trend to push the lower 90 percent out of the city in favor of the wealthy 10 percent continues. Stay tuned as I expect retaliation for this “betrayal” of city policies! And feel free to contact me should you be scratching your head when finding such notices. For all those financial geniuses out there: please let us know the cost-benefit analysis of such penny-wise persecution. Assuming that City Department of Finance employees are paid proper wages with benefits, could it be negative?