I am starting to understand the outrage that Californians felt when Proposition 13 was passed. Starting next year, the City of Duluth will charge every business owner $300 to inspect his or her property. Each business will accrue this charge, in addition to paying taxes which already funds the fire department.

Mayor Bergson, in the Duluth News Tribune, October 1, 2004, stated: “In today’s tough times, we have to make sure we are recovering a share of what it costs us to provide a given service.” I thought citizens already did that when they paid their property taxes? Evidently, I thought wrong.

Unfortunately, we have no other public service provider. Unlike private sector services, we must take what the city hands us in regards to fire protection, police services, or any kind of public works. If the costs go up – so be it. At least the city can automatically vote to give itself a surcharge. Problem solved. No questions asked.

And who better to pass along those costs than business owners? They, after all, only have to make payroll, pay inordinately high insurance rates, and be competitive so their customers don’t shop elsewhere. They cannot arbitrarily announce that they “must recover a share of the costs” they have built into the sales price of their service or product they provide. Who better, then, than business owners to absorb a new fee?

I only wish I had another public sector service provider so I could go somewhere else to get less costly and more quality services. Oh yes, that is precisely why many other Minnesota communities are growing and we are not.