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Welcome to la-la land - and it ain't Cali

by Kay King
15 replies
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Maryland has a new tax - a Rain Tax

EPA said water runoff needed to be slowed (one of thousands of regulations being issued day after day) - so to pay for "slowing" runoff there's a new tax on homeowners and business that is based on the amount of land used for driveway/patio/porch, etc - any surface that does not allow rainwater to soak into the ground. Wonder where a swimming pool fits into that....

If I lived there, I'd either move or I'd get the concrete broken up and hauled away and put down an old fashioned gravel drive instead. Of course, that might lead to a dust tax.

I thought I'd heard it all - but guess not.
  • Profile picture of the author SShip
    Unbelievable... Do we dare to try and figure out what's next...:rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    Where do they think the water goes that hits the roof? On my house gravity causes it to run down the roof and onto the ground.

    Maybe I have a weird house.
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    • Profile picture of the author thunderbird
      Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

      Where do they think the water goes that hits the roof? On my house gravity causes it to run down the roof and onto the ground.

      Maybe I have a weird house.
      That's it. A weird house. Here's what happens when something like rain or a pellet hits the roof of a normal house.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        Do we dare to try and figure out what's next...
        I think an air tax is next - but it will probably be in the guise of carbon dioxide emissions. The EPA will regulate how many breaths per minute an average sized person should take to avoid emitting too much carbon dioxide. Will be like a cell phone bill - a fixed rate with overages for heavy breathers.

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        • Profile picture of the author Jared Alberghini
          Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

          I think an air tax is next - but it will probably be in the guise of carbon dioxide emissions. The EPA will regulate how many breaths per minute an average sized person should take to avoid emitting too much carbon dioxide. Will be like a cell phone bill - a fixed rate with overages for heavy breathers.

          Watch out for the "Thinking Tax"... they are already taxing our thoughts, just getting us to think about it...
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    Funny -- here in Oregon they are arresting people for collecting rain water. Wanna collect rain water....move to Maryland.

    I know that runoff causes major water pollution problems...........but if they are worried about that, they should be pushing organic farming, illegalizing factory farms, and telling Monsanto and their ilk to go take a hike. Guess if you want to pollute free of charge, you have to make yourself a corporation.
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    Sal
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeAmbrosio
      Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

      Funny -- here in Oregon they are arresting people for collecting rain water. Wanna collect rain water....move to Maryland.

      I know that runoff causes major water pollution problems...........but if they are worried about that, they should be pushing organic farming, illegalizing factory farms, and telling Monsanto and their ilk to go take a hike. Guess if you want to pollute free of charge, you have to make yourself a corporation.

      Yeah, well if they did that these elected officials would lose campaign contributions and be out of a job

      Easier to lay it off on homeowners and small business owners. Most never fight it and even if they did it would not dent their re-election war chests...
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  • Profile picture of the author Big Rob
    Not so preposterous.
    Stormwater run off is a huge issue in Chesapeake Bay.
    The State is just trying to figure a way to offset the cost of diverting run off, or some solution to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous flowing into the bay.
    It is a problem here in Central Florida as well, Not only from the Ag industry, the residential and commercial property owners have over fertilized for decades.
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    • Profile picture of the author HeySal
      Originally Posted by Big Rob View Post

      Not so preposterous.
      Stormwater run off is a huge issue in Chesapeake Bay.
      The State is just trying to figure a way to offset the cost of diverting run off, or some solution to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous flowing into the bay.
      It is a problem here in Central Florida as well, Not only from the Ag industry, the residential and commercial property owners have over fertilized for decades.
      Actually - the way that is being taken up in some areas is to re-vegetate along the banks of waterways and to plant grasses instead of GMO or regular corn for livestock.

      The problem is that in a lot of places humans built right up to the waterlines. They can start revegetating every area that isn't cement, though. It might be time to just chalk it up that indigenous vegetation has to start replacing some of the cement. I

      And see my last post - they can, and really have to, get rid of the major pollution sources - go back to organic farming and illegalize factory farms. There's a reason nature works like it does and until humans get smart enough to understand that and work within nature's order -- we're going to wipe ourselves off the planet. The problem is that our leaders don't have minds that are large enough to encompass any thought but "money and power". It's time to put politicians on a leash and let scientists make the rules for how we live. If our idiot aristocracy didn't silence science for their own luxury, we'd probably not have half the problems we have now.
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      Sal
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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        One major problem is allowing large companies, shopping centers, plants, etc to pour acres of concrete instead of requiring multi-level parking garages that reduce the footprint and don't layer every bit of earth parking lots and the resultant contaminated runoff.

        Wonder if there's a biz opp here. Shredded tires are being used as playground base material. Why couldn't that same product be formed into rolls of shredded rubber somehow (melted) together enough to hold the shape - and use that for drives/walks, etc. It would create a tight mesh-like surface that allows rain to go through it.
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        • Profile picture of the author HeySal
          Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

          One major problem is allowing large companies, shopping centers, plants, etc to pour acres of concrete instead of requiring multi-level parking garages that reduce the footprint and don't layer every bit of earth parking lots and the resultant contaminated runoff.

          Wonder if there's a biz opp here. Shredded tires are being used as playground base material. Why couldn't that same product be formed into rolls of shredded rubber somehow (melted) together enough to hold the shape - and use that for drives/walks, etc. It would create a tight mesh-like surface that allows rain to go through it.
          They're doing that now, Kay. There are a lot of aspects to making "cement" that works with the rubbers and other trash shredded into it, though, so it's a technical pursuit. There's a lot of rubber being used for roadbed as well as in cement now in some places.

          Also -- tires can be used in making buildings. There are sustainable homes being made in the west (I think AZ but could be wrong - or there could be more of them than were covered in what I read) that are using tires in making the homes and they are working real well - well insulated walls. Out in areas like where I live (sage and juniper desert with pumicey soil) we use tires as planters. The soil is pretty pumicy so it's hard to grow many types of plants right in the ground.
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          Sal
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          • Profile picture of the author Kay King
            LOL - My Grandmother on my maternal side used to use tractor tires as both planters and as sand boxes for the grandkids. They make a great sandbox!
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            • Profile picture of the author ThomM
              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              LOL - My Grandmother on my maternal side used to use tractor tires as both planters and as sand boxes for the grandkids. They make a great sandbox!
              I've got some old car tires out back I'm thinking about turning into potato planters
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeAmbrosio
      Originally Posted by Big Rob View Post

      Not so preposterous.
      Stormwater run off is a huge issue in Chesapeake Bay.
      The State is just trying to figure a way to offset the cost of diverting run off, or some solution to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous flowing into the bay.
      It is a problem here in Central Florida as well, Not only from the Ag industry, the residential and commercial property owners have over fertilized for decades.
      I guess it's simply easier to create a new "revenue stream" than it would be to fix the spending waste most public offices have now. If they looked REAL hard they'd find money. But we know that won't ever happen...
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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        Mike - they wouldn't even have to look hard.

        While we are tightening our belts at home, look at what's being built in Utah. A huge federal data center that has even former intel top level people very nervous. It's NSA - it's huge - and we don't even know abut it.

        We are burying people in regulations and taxes for every single thing they use - and for things like rain they can't control.
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