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- <text id=91TT1988>
- <title>
- Sep. 09, 1991: American Notes:Taxation
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Sep. 09, 1991 Power Vacuum
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 21
- American Notes
- TAXATION
- Pricey Points Of View
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Pay-per-view TV is one thing, say the residents of Port Hue
- neme, Calif., but this is ridiculous! Eight homeowner groups are
- suing that sleepy coastal city, located 65 miles north of Los
- Angeles, to protest a new tax on beach properties determined in
- part by how close they are to the ocean. The "view tax," as the
- local press has dubbed it, was imposed in July to help maintain
- a 52-acre park along the beach. It will cost property owners
- closest to the water an extra $192 a year. The homeowner groups,
- comprising most of the 1,250 property holders affected by the
- tax, complain that they were already assessed higher taxes when
- they bought their homes and are now being hit with a double
- whammy.
- </p>
- <p> City officials counter that the tax is not really for the
- view but for proximity to the beach. Such distinctions are lost
- on angry homeowners like Don Fresh, who will be surtaxed on
- three beachfront properties. Says he: "This used to be a
- graceful little city. But now it's us against them."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-