The Denver Libertarian
On occasion, an hilarious little gem can be unearthed when following local government. During a recent riveting Denver City Council meeting on June 19, 2017 the following appeared in the meeting notes about mid-way through:
[A bill to] Amend Article X of Chapter 53 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code to repeal the tax upon taxicab operators to reflect that the City has never collected this tax.
Interesting wording there at the end. If you have never collected it, why is it on the books? I think we can safely file this one under incompetence par excellance. So what is this mysterious tax? According to the legislation details:
The Tax upon Taxicab Operators, was enacted in 1953. It imposes a $100 tax upon each operator plus $50 for each taxicab. This ordinance change request seeks to repeal the tax imposed by Article X, Chapter 53 DRMC (Denver Revised Municipal Code) as the Treasury Division is not currently, nor apparently has it ever, administered/collected this tax. Our discussions with former Treasury staff members confirms that this tax has not been administered since at least 1972, if ever.
Long story short, ummm, we have no idea. I suppose this is a win, since a tax is being removed. But, there is one more item to discuss, there was an out all along for not paying this tax written right into the Municipal Code, from Sec. 53-474:
No delinquency in payment of the tax herein provided for shall be grounds for suspension, revocation or interference of any license or certificate granted to any operator by any licensing authority pursuant to the statutes and laws of the state.
So even if you had not been paying the tax, there was no way the city could have forced you to stop operating. Given that there are 46 chapters in the DRMC, I wonder how many other outdated taxes, fees or regulations are on the books; anyone up for a little light reading? To sum up, we are repealing a tax that has been on the books for over sixty years that in no way, could have ever been collected in the first place. Now that is something to behold! If you ever doubted government competency, this should give you new hope.
