"Read My Lips..."

People have been asking why I haven’t added a blog in a while. As if to emphasize the fact that there has been a lull, I didn’t answer. But now I will: I just resigned.

Yep, even in an economy like this I found a way to resign my job. Taking the place of that income is going to be the revenue from people clicking on those little ads over to the right, so, if you don’t want to see Sally Struthers crying over my kids (and an empty package of Oreos) in some infomercial, get to clicking.

What this resignation means is that I will have more time to write on this blog. (I did give them a two weeks notice, so it will be a bit patchy for now.) It also means that I will get a tax break. Here where I live (Jefferson County, AL) one is taxed for working. You read that correctly: if you work in Jefferson County 0.5% of your income goes to the county commission to help pay for things like the sewer bonds they mismanaged. This is in addition to the income tax that the State of Alabama already charges. And if you work in the city of Birmingham, like I did through the next two paychecks, 1.0% of your income goes to help you celebrate your civil right of being treated as an equal to everyone else… except doctors and lawyers, who are exempt from the Occupational Tax.

Before you look at Alabamians as people who are complacent about unjust taxation, to be sure there were many people who felt the Occupational Tax wasn’t right. One of them was a judge, who ruled back in January that the tax was illegal because it had been repealed by the state legislature... nearly ten years earlier! So, he ordered that all Occupational Tax revenues be refunded to the citizens who earned them and that the county commission cease and desist the collection of said tax immediately. Ahhh, had you going there, didn't I? What he actually said is that all of the money they collect from January on be put into a special escrow account until all appeals are exhausted or until such time as the legislature can meet and find a way to make it legal, whichever comes first. In a huge upset it looks as though the State Legislature will win the race: the bill is in the Senate as we speak. And Alabamians are up in arms about it!

This is an excerpt from an actual email I received: “The Senate delegation has REVISED the House bill, excluding professionals. The full Senate will vote on the revised bill... Passing this bill AS IS means NO GUARANTEE for arts funding. Call your reps and let them know how important it is to INCLUDE professionals in the Jefferson County Occupational Tax Bill.”

Yes, by God, if we’re gonna be taxed for being hard working members of the economy, we’re all gonna be taxed - so that we can support “artists” that can’t manage to produce anything with enough merit for someone to buy it. Location may be only one of many reasons it wasn’t “The Mobile Bay Tea Party.” And this kills me, because Bostonians have continued to help re-elect Ted Kennedy to office for something like two centuries, and panicked their city into lockdown over the antics of the Cartoon Network. “The animators are coming, the animators are coming!” Boston is without argument the dumbest city in the country, yet Bostonians were brave enough to stand up in the face of unjust taxation.

Well, no matter. In a matter of weeks I won’t be working in Birmingham or Jefferson County; therefore, I won’t be paying those taxes any more. And it’s a good thing, because I’m going to need all the extra cash I can scrounge to help pay back Obama’s “Making Work Pay” tax credit.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/INSIDE-WASHINGTON-Rude-apf-15091434.html?.v=1