I got canvassed for Columbus, Ohio’s Issue 1 today. The literature tells me to “Vote For Columbus.” That means voting for a half-percent income tax increase: to 2.5 from 2 percent.

Jane Jacobs kicks off her chapter on “Dumbed-Down Taxes” with a history lesson on taxes - especially as they relate to cities, a topic she knows quite well.

Medieval cities didn’t fair so well in the Dark Ages, but their rise from the low point around 1000 shows the culture’s trajectory back out of Rome’s collapse. Jacobs takes the opportunity to introduce one of the advantages these cities held: Subsidiarity.

Subsidiarity is the principle that government works best—most responsibly and responsively—when it is closest to the people it serves and the needs it addresses. “Dumbed-down taxes,” Dark Age Ahead (p103)

 We’ve got a large federal government. We’ve got “bridges to nowhere.”

But, in Ohio, our cities get to participate in a small exception. Our cities can levy an income tax.

Now, Columbus is no city-state. We’ve got local property taxes to fund our schools and other levies. We’ve got sales taxes to cover the county, transit, and other items. Cities, townships, and others compete with the schools for a small sliver of the property tax pie. The state gets income taxes. The federal government gets a larger portion.

But, at least this income tax is: A) responsive to ability to pay - that is, you make less, you pay less; and B) economic expansion - more jobs equals more revenue.

And, we get to vote on it: progressive and responsive.