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Moderator cut: off topic/personal Many cities levy an earned income tax on the people who work in those cities. I pay 3.4 (within a percentage point or two) percent of my income to Philadelphia, more than I pay to the state of Pennsylvania. Because of reciprocation, I do not pay income tax to the suburb in which I live.
My suburb is subsidizing street repairs, emergency services, and garbage pickup in Philadelphia.
I may be benefiting from city services (although how much I benefit from pothole-riddled streets is questionable, and my employer uses a private trash hauler), but I'm also paying through the nose for them.
Yeah, I've noticed that many city neighborhoods are out of the reach of many middle income and working class folks. Guess we're stuck living in the 'burbs, where housing is more affordable.
I assume that you do pay property tax where you live and that is what most suburbs rely on. Suburbs also have a lot more streets, gas and power lines, water and sewer lines,etc. per person that have to be maintained - that was subsidized when it was built and is subsidized to maintain in many cases. Also, in many cities, housing is still more affordable than in the suburbs. Suburbs are more wasteful than cities in energy usage and this will be more of a problem as energy costs go up. Yes, some older houses are not energy efficient, but this can be corrected as I am doing with my 109 year old house that is within walking distance to almost everything I need (o.k., some times I have to drive to home depot). You also seem to imply that funds are going from your suburb to the city, when I think you mean that you do not pay as much taxes to your suburb as you would if you both lived and worked there.
Moderator cut: off topic/personal Many cities levy an earned income tax on the people who work in those cities. I pay 3.4 (within a percentage point or two) percent of my income to Philadelphia, more than I pay to the state of Pennsylvania. Because of reciprocation, I do not pay income tax to the suburb in which I live.
My suburb is subsidizing street repairs, emergency services, and garbage pickup in Philadelphia.
I may be benefiting from city services (although how much I benefit from pothole-riddled streets is questionable, and my employer uses a private trash hauler), but I'm also paying through the nose for them.
Yeah, I've noticed that many city neighborhoods are out of the reach of many middle income and working class folks. Guess we're stuck living in the 'burbs, where housing is more affordable.
I assume that you do pay property tax where you live and that is what most suburbs rely on. Suburbs also have a lot more streets, gas and power lines, water and sewer lines,etc. per person that have to be maintained - that was subsidized when it was built and is subsidized to maintain in many cases. Also, in many cities, housing is still more affordable than in the suburbs. Suburbs are more wasteful than cities in energy usage and this will be more of a problem as energy costs go up. Yes, some older houses are not energy efficient, but this can be corrected as I am doing with my 109 year old house that is within walking distance to almost everything I need (o.k., some times I have to drive to home depot). You also seem to imply that funds are going from your suburb to the city, when I think you mean that you do not pay as much taxes to your suburb as you would if you both lived and worked there.
All those years people were moving to the suburbs, we stayed in the city. What's going to finally drive us out of the city is all the hipsters moving into the city with their plaid shirts, hipster glasses, foul language and excessive drug and cigarette use. Either we're going to move to another city with fewer hipsters, or move to the suburbs, or hope the hipster phenomenon dies out.
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