Blog Post
From the desk of Robert Rappaport on Thursday, January 29th 2009 at 6:45

MAKING TAX HIKES SOUND GOOD

In two separate news stories this week, I've quoted officials urging tax hikes, but they say it in a nice-sounding way...

First of all, the Tucson City Council is using the term "revenue enhancement" to help offset the municipal budget crisis. What that term really means is raising taxes and fees to offset the cost of services. Those services are funded in part by sales tax revenue from the state. As we all know, those figures are down, because the economy is bad and people aren't spending money.

University of Arizona President Robert Shelton, according to wire service reports, also used the new buzzwords as a way to help universities dig out of the financial mess. Arizona State University already has announced worker furloughs and Shelton is urging another solution, cloaked nicely in the term of "revenue enhancement." I'm not really sure what that means, except there has been talk of higher tuition increases and allowing more out-of-state students in to help pay the bills, since they pay LOTS more than the locals.

I don't think anybody has all the answers these days, but if it looks like a duck.....

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