Taxing the Intellect
Our older colleagues at Talk About Town chide the Daily’s editorial staff for what they consider a misunderstanding of A2’s proposed income tax. “The Daily writers concluded an income tax would be ‘the most viable option,’ though ‘costly for Ann Arbor’s citizens.’ Now, off campus it’s understood that the purpose of a city income tax is to let folks who are not Ann Arbor citizens - but who work in town - share some of the financial burden.”
The News, which pointed out this obvious-to-all-but-the-most-ignorant “fact” - which holds for this proposal but not for city income taxes in general - in each of its stories about the tax proposal, must then have a predominantly on-campus readership.
The kids get it right in this editorial, where they point out that such a proposal amounts to a tax on those who can’t afford to live in Ann Arbor.
Also, we missed this excellent Sravya Chirumamilla column on life after the Ann Arbor Tenants Union while we were out of town. (Out: heat. In: convenient burglar entrances.)
I think I’m grumpy tonight, but that AA News article’s tone of condescension really irritated me. The students were, first of all, right. But even if they hadn’t been, the TT authors work at one of the most vapid, overstaffed, mediocre, insipid, uninspired, vacant, gallingly uninteresting local newspapers I’ve ever had the displeasure to read. The students at the Daily go to school full-time in addition to writing for the paper. What’s the AA News staffers’ excuse?
posted by Anna on January 22nd, 2004 at 7:08 pmthe last place i worked with a decent paycheck was cleveland. however, i lived in akron. both those cities had income taxes and they were far enough away so they didn’t have reciprocity with each other. so i paid about 5-6% of my income to multiple city income taxes.
when i moved to ann arbor, i got my first paycheck and freaked out. i ran down to our business manager and told her that they had forgotten to take out my city income tax! she just looked at me like i had two heads and laughed and said, “oh ann arbor will never have a city income tax, income taxes are for poor cities like pontiac and detroit.”
i had a respite for about 3 years, and for that i am happy. but as a student who was in cleveland and getting charged cleveland taxes and making *very little*, i would be more than happy to pay an income tax as a resident of ann arbor so some student who makes 1/16 what i do doesn’t have to, but the guy down the street in the pittsfield property tax area that makes 10x what i do has to as well.
charging commuters does nothing but tell the people who have the jobs no yuppie in ann arbor wants that they’re not welcome here, unless they have a broom in their hands. if so, please fork over X dollars for the privledge of breathing our air, or aire as the case may be.
posted by beth on January 22nd, 2004 at 10:05 pmLike anyone here, I have issues with the Ann Arbor News — its tone, its editorial policy, its awful web site — but Ann Arbor could do a lot worse.
Local political reporting is expensive and labor intensive; most newspapers have cut WAY back on it. Try comparing today’s coverage with what the same paper did 50 years ago, on something like a city council election, or a state legislative fight with big local implications. Part of the reason for the huge decline in political interest and knowledge is that local media has stopped informing people.
The Ann Arbor News is an anachronism: it still makes a consistent effort to be there with coverage on local issues. Is there a better local daily paper in Michigan? I don’t think so.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 23rd, 2004 at 12:21 pmIt’s about 50x better than the Lansing State Urinal.
posted by Steven B. Cherry on January 23rd, 2004 at 2:13 pmI’ve lived in a lot of places, and the AA news is certainly the worst of all of the local papers I’ve read with any regularity. However, I’ve never lived anywhere in Michigan but AA, so perhaps the newspapers are even worse elsewhere in the state. Shiver.
posted by Anna on January 23rd, 2004 at 2:21 pmWhat kinds of “local” papers are we comparing the AA News to? Hopefully papers of cities of equivalent size? Here are my bases for comparison:
I’d place the AA News far above “The Chelsea Standard”, “The Hungry Horse News”, or “The Princeton Packet”, which is reasonable, as those all are far smaller publications for far smaller areas. I’d say the AANews is about equal in quality to “The Times of Trenton” or “The Asbury Park Press”–which is actually pretty good. Those papers both serve a smaller core city (Trenton is half the size of A2, Asbury Park much smaller) but a pretty large population in the surrounding area. Even if you consider all of Washtenaw and Livingston Counties to be A2’s supporting population, it doesn’t compare to the areas those papers are covering.
posted by Murph on January 23rd, 2004 at 2:44 pmWell, it’s all about comparison, I suppose. Granted, the AA News might have more content than the Dexter Penny-Saver or Weekly Shopper, or whatever it’s called. And it’s certainly better than the Rite-Aid catalog inserts I get in the mail all the time (though only barely). If it’s just “news” or “world events” or “in-depth coverage” you’re looking for — well, there are better sources out there. But if it’s recipes or condescending editorials you’re after, look no further. AA News is THE best source for tracking down obscure recipes from now-defunct eateries and fast-food greasy spoons (I bet the NY Times would never carry a piece about how to make knock-off Arby’s Horsey Sauce right in the comfort of your own kitchen. And the Globe never covers tortilla soup. So it just goes to show you.) And the AA News Smores Desk is the best in the country, hands down. So it’s all relative, I suppose.
And while we’re at it, the Detroit News and the Free Press are both horrible papers. In fact, they might be the worst newspapers currently serving a major metropolitan area (however you like to define that latter term).
posted by Boris on January 23rd, 2004 at 3:42 pmI’m also not a fan of Detroit’s papers, but none of them hold a candle to the Orange County Register as a marker of sheer horror. Check out their letters page online if you ever want to experience true unabashed right-wing lunacy. For those who have lived in Pittsburgh, it even puts the Tribune-Review to shame.
posted by Nick on January 23rd, 2004 at 3:59 pmBoris, I don’t know if you remember the Detroit papers before they became a Joint Operated Publisher, or before the strike, but they used to be fantastic. Once they went on strike, their best writers left and went to places like the Oakland Press, which is actually a lot better than you’d expect.
posted by js on January 23rd, 2004 at 4:17 pmBut outside of the NY Times, the Boston Globe, the WSJ or the LA Times, it’s hard to come up with a daily newspaper that hasn’t fallen down in the last decade. Even the mighty Trib is now just a step above the USA Today. And the Sun Times is currently way fuckered with their Lord Black fiasco.
js
js — I didn’t know that about the writers’ exodus. It makes sense, though. If memory serves, the strike was going on around the time I got to Annarbour, so I don’t have any frame of reference to the good old days of the Detroit newspaper scene. From what I’ve been able to piece together from reading the Metro Times over the years, though, the merger of the Free Press and the News really screwed the whole operation up big time. In fact, if I’m faced with the prospect of buying the Free Press, News, or the AA News, I’ll usually just opt for the latter in hopes of clipping a recipe. The other two just really aren’t worth the time. And too much Mitch Albom for my taste, anyway.
As for other papers, I thought the Washington Post was still decent the last time I looked at it (but that was about a year or so ago). As for smaller markets, the St. Petersburg Times in Florida does a really good job in serving a metro region of a couple hundred thousand. The Tampa Tribune is unreadable, but the StP Times still holds up pretty well — and, if I’m not mistaken, it’s managed to resist the conglomerization/corporatization that has overtaken so many smaller, second-tier papers.
posted by Boris on January 23rd, 2004 at 4:39 pmMurph, My bases for comparison run the gamut from the Patent Trader (serving a much smaller community), the Reporter Dispatch (about the same size), the New Haven Register (same size as AA), the Hartford Courant (also around the same size, maybe slightly bigger), the Portsmouth Herald (a smaller community), the Portland Press Herald and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (both bigger than AA, but Portland ME is still a pretty small city), the Ellsworth American (small town), the local Rochester, NY paper, and papers in Amherst and Falmouth, MA, as well as a couple others I’ve probably forgotten.
posted by Anna on January 23rd, 2004 at 4:55 pmSteve Cherry knows what I’m talking about. Unfortunately, the Lansing State Journal is FAR more typical of papers in cities about this size than the Ann Arbor News. (I’m finding it hard to believe that the New Haven Register is any better; it seemed like a rag in summer 1989 when I was there.)
The Lansing State Journal was never a great paper, but it used to be a lot better than it is now. They even used to have some decent writers. But what newspaper wants to pay for that anymore?
I don’t pay any attention to recipes, and didn’t even notice “talk about town” until AAIO came along. My criteria of a paper is how it covers local government and politics and local issues.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 23rd, 2004 at 5:11 pmI stand corrected. Portland, ME, while feeling much bigger, is actually half the size of AA.
posted by Anna on January 23rd, 2004 at 5:13 pmOops, didn’t see your note, Larry. The New Haven Register does suck, but not as much as the AA news. At least the stories are sometimes interesting. Of course, they have more to work with, what with the drive-by shootings, political corruption, car-jackings and all.
posted by Anna on January 23rd, 2004 at 5:15 pm2 words: Holland Sentinel.
posted by Brandon on January 24th, 2004 at 3:02 amBoris- Washington Post? Rev. Moon is a loon!
posted by js on January 24th, 2004 at 7:48 pmjs
The Moonie’s headquarters was near where I went to high school. Does Moon own the Wash. Post??? (He is a loon).
posted by Anna on January 25th, 2004 at 11:13 amAnd his (and the Post’s) inattention to butternut squash is simply inexcusable.
posted by Nick on January 25th, 2004 at 11:39 amThe Washington Times (DC’s right wing daily) is owned by Rev Moon. The Post has been owned by the same family since the 1930s.
posted by Dan on January 25th, 2004 at 1:49 pmI’d be hard-pressed to argue that the Washington Times is better than the AA News.
posted by Anna on January 25th, 2004 at 5:58 pmThe city income tax would certainly have an effect on people who work low-wage jobs and commute to Ann Arbor from areas with lower housing costs.
However, the city income tax would also snag highly-paid U of M administrators, doctors, white-collar Pfizer workers, and a lot of other people with hefty incomes that live in the Ugly New Houses in Dexter, Chelsea, Saline, etc.
posted by Chris Herdt on January 27th, 2004 at 10:20 amI’m torn; on the one hand, I think it’s really obnoxious for people who don’t live within walking distance of downtown to feel that they and they alone are entitled to have and drive cars in AA and argue that students (only) should not have cars. That line of thinking — that it’s not just students who should be finding alternatives to driving — would argue for a commuter tax for people who opt out of public transportation. On the other hand, I can also see the other side of the argument — some have been priced out of AA and so are forced to commute to the downtown area.
Maybe a way to do it would be to raise AA’s income taxes but then offer a tax break for people who don’t drive to work or a tax break for those who don’t drive much generally speaking (as documented by odometer readings or some such thing). That would encourage locals who live West of Main Street and drive to campus (a large proportion of faculty and upper-level administrators) to walk, cycle, or take the bus instead, without penalizing those who can’t afford to live in AA. Some AA residents would still decide it was worth it to drive, and they’d generate money for the city.
The real trick would be coming up with ways to tell whether people are taking public transport or not and whether they are driving/parking in the AA area. You wouldn’t want to go solely by whether or not someone pays for parking in a lot because that would just encourage street parking….
posted by Anna on January 27th, 2004 at 12:34 pm