Print this story |
E-mail story |
This story has 4 comments Add your own |
iPod friendly | Bookmark this
What is this?
JeffCo job can’t be found in Shelby Co.
Published Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Dear Editor,
As a Jefferson County employee, I feel I must respond to this paper’s publisher regarding his comments on the Jefferson County occupational tax being an unfair tax on Shelby County residents.
The occupational tax is actually a privilege license for working in Jefferson County and it never was an actual tax.
The politician who implemented the county’s privilege license fee is the same one who decided the Alabama legislature could use it for a different project needing funding, and when that was declared illegal, the license fee was taken away from Jefferson County.
Now, that legislator has penned and passed a bill that is worded so vaguely that if it is implemented it will be virtually impossible to audit payees for compliance to the law. The bill reads that .45 percent tax is on “net” income. What does that mean? Does anyone know?
I first and second interviewed with Shelby County more than a year ago for the same position I now hold at Jefferson County. Shelby County never filled the position. Instead, they enacted a hiring freeze due to budget shortfalls.
When Shelby County had serious financial problems such as those due to the water treatment problems they passed a tax to cover the problem and made it go away.
Jefferson County has serious problems caused by greedy politicians and the courts will have to fix some of that. That seems to be happening now.
In the meantime, I thank God that my hard work has paid off and I continue to hold down a job with the people who struggle to make Jefferson County survive during this time of crisis.
I cannot get a similar job in Shelby County, and I doubt if any of the Shelby County people who complain about the “unfair tax” could get a good job in Shelby County, too.
The jury is still out on how the Alabama Supreme Court will rule regarding Jefferson County being able to use the still collected .5 percent privilege license fee.
With the old or the new version of a Jefferson County occupational tax, the wealthy seem to have unfair exemptions and all Alabama citizens need to pay close attention to that.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?
Comments
Posted by Thinking (anonymous) on September 23, 2009 at 4:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Dear Mr. Kidwell,
You wrote, “The occupational tax is actually a privilege license for working in Jefferson County and it never was an actual tax.”
This sounds strangely familiar. Where have I heard this recently…
.
.
This is part of a transcript of an interview with Obama discussing the health care bill’s mandate to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.
Stephanopoulos: I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: Tax—“a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”
Obama: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. I mean what...
Stephanopoulos: Well, no, but...
Obama: ...what you’re saying is...
Stephanopoulos: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics say it is a tax increase.
Obama: My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy. You know that. Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we’re going to have an individual mandate or not, but...
Stephanopoulos: But you reject that it’s a tax increase?
Obama: I absolutely reject that notion.
.
.
Evidently Obama would agree with you. I suppose it depends on what the definition of "is", oops I mean "Tax", is. I guess using the dictionary to define a tax would be a bit presumptuous.
Maybe soon we will hear, “No, that is not a tax, it is a purchase fee.”
Posted by AmyJowers (anonymous) on September 24, 2009 at 7:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Personally, I have never understood being charged a "tax" to work in Jeff.co. If you do not live there, you do not benefit. Didn't our ancestors leave England due to "taxation without representation"? Why should we volunteer for it now. I do agree that Shelby County is sadly lacking in sufficient jobs. They are adding mostly retail and fast food. Many businesses no longer hire full time help. It is very hard to support families in these circumstances. I don't think Jeff. co. handled it correctly.
Posted by ryan (anonymous) on September 24, 2009 at 9:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
A fee to work in an area. Sounds like a monoploly to me. Sir, maybe you did not get the Shelby County job because they have seen the over staffed, unispired, deadbeat, criminal types that make the news ever so often. I do not assume that you fall into that catagory but dogs & flees. If JeffCo can charge me to work there, can thay charge someone to visit? To drive through? How about Sheila Smoot who considered charging non-sewer customers a fee for a sewage service that they don't and will not recieve. She said it was a priveledge to have clean water. The water she reffered to was creek, stream, river, & pond waters. You JeffCo employees have had it made, flying high & now your out fuel with no parachute.
Posted by Robbie1 (anonymous) on September 26, 2009 at 12:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Municipalities across the US have cash flow problems right now, and that includes Shelby County.
Governments and municipalities depend on taxes and when the taxes coming in are not enough to meet the need they create new ones.
You will pay taxes to visit any place in the US the second you buy anything and you pay their local sales tax.
Kidwell's main point was that people should be glad to have a job in Jefferson County, especially with unemployment over 10% in Alabama. The net take home pay in Jefferson County is way better than no take home pay in Shelby County or in any of the other counties people commute from.
Maybe Jefferson County will rise from despair the same way Shelby County has risen from the same sort of financial problems, but it will take time and some taxes have to be paid to fix the current problems. Shelby county people had to pay to fix problems too and with the growing population they have enjoyed that was easier to do, than with Jefferson County’s declining population.
Kidwell thanks God for a good job in this economy. Anyone holding a good job now should do likewise. They should sing praises to God for the company that gives them a paycheck and Kidwell clearly sings praises to Jefferson County for that.
God willing Jefferson County will one day look back on this time of crisis just as Shelby County now looks back on theirs from fifteen years ago, and along with the people reading this everyone will remember and be glad for the positive change.
Post a comment (Terms of Use Policy)
(Requires free registration.)