The powers that be in Toledo, City Council, newly inaugurated Mayor and others, appear to be on board to raise Toledo’s already oppressive 2.25% income tax another .25%.
The result of this is very simple to diagnose and very painful to imagine.
- No new business.
- A dramatic loss of current business to the townships.
- Negative population growth as current residents move to the townships and no one moves in to replace them.
- Drastically declining property values, even greater than the current rate of decline.
- A dramatic reduction in real estate investment.
There seems to be no way around it. When you are competing against zero taxes, the one thing you cannot do is raise them.
There is pain ahead for Toledo.
I find all this to be taxing my temperment.