Local governments are always looking for ways to “stick it to the little guy or gal” it seems.

If you look at your utility or tax bills, you’ll see all sorts of taxes and fees just to live where you live. By the way, politicians like to use the term “fees” as this keeps them from saying the “tax” word and angering voters.

It was not really a surprise when I recently read that the City of Philadelphia is charging bloggers $300 per year for a “business privilege license” because they believe blogging is a business.

They consider blogging a business because some bloggers receive a little money for advertisements that run on their blogs. The bloggers reported this as income on their taxes and “BAM” here comes the local government bloodsuckers to get their share. Continue reading →