"Menlo Park wants to start charging people to exercise their constitutional rights. How long before the city slaps a tax on people who want to exercise their right to free speech, or to peaceably assemble?"
"The city calls this a 'fee for service,' but the city won't be providing any service to newspapers. The newspapers purchase and maintain the news racks."
"Local newspapers are typically small businesses. These fees are prohibitive. They'll make a paper consider the idea of dropping distribution and news coverage in Menlo Park."
The Menlo Park City Council is set to vote on new fees, including a $373 charge for each newspaper rack. This could significantly impact local newspapers, with a potential cost of $9,325 for a paper with 25 racks. The city justifies these fees as necessary due to reduced car tax revenue, yet critics argue that the city is taxing constitutional rights without providing any service. Eliminating a high-salary public engagement position could save more money than the proposed fees, highlighting a focus on raising taxes rather than cutting costs.
Read at Padailypost
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]