A Lesson on Doing Business in New Orleans

Buddha Bubba applied for an occupational license in Gainesville, Florida yesterday. Buddha Bubba applied for occupational license in New Orleans in 1995.

The license in Gainesville was done on-line, from New Orleans, and was completed in ten minutes, with questions like: "...what else can we do help you?" Thus the license to do business and pay taxes Gainesville is complete and the City of Gainesville will soon begin collecting revenues from the business operation

Contrast this with doing business in New Orleans. In January, after a five-year struggle to get an out-dated, illogical ordinance changed, Buddha Bubba had a professional license applicant file for a license. Not only does Buddha Bubba not have a license at this time, there are still complications to be "worked out". The City of New Orleans could have been collecting tax revenue for five years. Instead, amazingly, they ignored their fiduciary responsibility and lost five years worth of revenues they otherwise would have been collecting. Multiply this case by hundreds of others, and its not hard to see why New Orleans can’t find the money to pave our streets, fix our schools, or give even modest raises to rank-and-file city workers. But isn’t it incredible that the City always finds a way to give fat raises to upper level city executives?

The point of government is not simply to tax, by whatever name it is called, but to regulate, for the common good. In New Orleans, special interest groups are more important than the common good of the citizens. The greater the sway of people of influence, the less need for competition or openness of the regulations of business. Small powerful groups can influence, to the detriment of the majority, the outcome of everything from sewerage rates to the way that utility rates are distributed or property taxes are collected, as it may affect their narrow needs.

The city gets less revenue but the business of influence pays top dollar to maintain their influence. Not surprisingly, the tax base shrinks as the political leaders get fat at the expense of the citizens. So much for the responsible altruism of government.

The last time I checked, the words Free Enterprise was actually supposed to mean something – the free exercise of private initiative with as little government intrusion as possible. That cannot happen when the co-dependence of government and special interests of specific industries continue their incestuous money cycle. Why, for example, does it take tax credits, special bonds issues and outright gifts to private enterprise to make private projects happen?