I read this somewhere on the board here a few months ago, about the in city only insurance premium tax they have on us. It's 10.75% (correct that if it's wrong) and it's on your property and car insurance for in city residents only. Look at your insurance premium billing sheet, and you'll see it tucked in there as a "Local tax".
The few people that I could get to discuss it with me, city wise, tried not to talk about it much until I pressed them. The city brings in over a million bucks on this one. They love to see our property values rise, as it increases their tax part of your premium. They love to see us buy new cars and boats and such, as they get 10% of that too.
This is a tax that only the citizens of corbin pays.
They want people to want to come into the city, but, this tax is really prohibitive. Why give them an extre 200-500 a year just to live there for having insurance.
The savings you will get by living in the city limits, by saving on your insurance rates do to a lower fire class rating and city residence rating, is voided by this tax, and sometimes, you pay more.
This I feel is why CSX didn't come into the city, the insurance tax they would be saddled with by adding the yard and shops insurance costs 10%+ to their tax bill. Smart move CSX, I wonder if former mayor Miller told them about that before they said they wanted to come into the city.
Are you sure all of them have this tax. I don't know if they do or not.
If it's 10%+, that's too high. If anything, it shouldn't be higher than the state sales tax. But, there should be no tax on insurance at all, especially when you have to have it. The state requires car insurance, and that's fine, but to tax that insurance, no, I don't agree with that. And your home, you can't afford not to have insurance on your home no matter what.
No, this tax is wrong, especially the 10%+. Just cause everyone has it, don't make it right.
Remember when they raised the sales tax to 6%, using the "bonus payment for vetrans" as it's basis to get the public to support it. That's politics at its worst.
Devin, any percent is too much in this case. They need to adjust property taxes, or find other ways to raise this revenue than putting it on the backs of city residents.
How about an out of the city employee tax? You only pay the tax if you live outside the city limits, but work inside the city limits. How about that? Is that fair? Which is worse?
Are we people and business friendly or do we milk the public in every way possible?
There are several taxes that are totally unfair. First, taxes on insurance. I own property and pay property tax. To protect my property I have insurance. Why should any of us have to pay a tax on our insurance? What business is that of the government?
Secondly, a business owns inventory. They pay tax on the building in which they stock the inventory. They pay taxes on the profits they make for selling their products and inventory. Why should they have to pay tax on their inventory? Some companies try to reduce their inventory to reduce this tax. They risk losing sales because of lack of inventory. Why is that any business of the government as to how much inventory they carry?
The city's business license fees are also too high. They were raised a few years ago because Corbin was in bad financial shape. Corbin now receives an occupational tax in Corbin, Whitley County and still gets the shaft in Knox County. Corbin now has a restaurant tax. But did Corbin reduce its license fees for business? No.
When a person rents a house or apartment how much do they have to pay as a deposit on their utilities? Many people say they have to pay too much.
What can we do to make our community more friendly to our citizens and our businesses?
Costs and expenses go up all the time. Many times, it's the things you may not think about that kills your bottom line, but, all in all, things just creep up on you because that's the way it happens.
To make it more friendly, I can only brainstorm here. The friendliness comes directly from our citizens and business owners and their employees. The government can do a little bit, but you don't interact with the govt. on a daily basis, or at least most people don't.
I've heard about the deposit fees on the utilities. That is determined by the utilities board I think. All they have to do, is lower them. That's it. Very simple. There is no state mandate on what to charge for utility deposit fees. If there is, please enlighten me.
The license fees are too high. They shouldn't be something the city counts on to make money for the city. As of now, it's a revenue cow for the city, just like the insurance tax.
The more I read and think of this, why would anyone want to annex into the city?
