BaancBlog

Jack wrote a piece in the WaPo's Metro Section yesterday. It probably should have been on the editorial page, but the editor guesses that there wasn't much room there, what with all the scribbling about the recent elections that must have been dumped on the poor paper.

Much of it is the standard, common sense plea for fiscal sanity. (Jack, Linda Crop, and Anthony Williams steered us out of the mess we got ourselves into a few years ago.) But he says something that can't be repeated often enough here in the District:

Raising taxes might help to close the shortfall now, but it will also put us at a greater competitive disadvantage with Maryland and Virginia in the future.

Jack understands that we are in competition with Northern Virginia and, to some degree, nearby Maryland. If you have any doubts, go to the Shoppers Food Warehouse at Potomac Yards, the Costco at Pentagon City, or the Giant in McLean. There are many, many folks with DC tags, and not all from Wards 2 and 3. The people shopping there do so for many reasons, but one must presume that one ow them is saving money, with convenience also being important.

What we can't see are those who shopped for an apartment or condo in DC and decided that things were too high priced here. High price means not just rent, but also taxes, parking, and yes, public safety questions. Some even decide to lower price by buying a fixer-upper in a slightly dicey area. Whoops, that's gentrification. (You knew there had to be a local hook in there somewhere.)

The editor often gets the feeling, listening to some on the Council, that the effect of raising taxes, or taxing grocery bags, or raising parking meter fees, or even some zoning changes (think "affordable housing") is simple: people will pay the extra and will not modify their behavior. But they do. You can't do "one thing", as it causes other things to happen.

It will be interesting to see how the new Council handles the current financial environment.