A new pavement tax project leads Angers storekeepers to demonstrate on streets

A fiscal revolution has just appeared in Angers and maybe in France. The pavement tax, the Angers city council plans to implement at the beginning of 2013 "will not be, of course, compulsory for the store keepers of downtown", said Jacques Motteau, deputy mayor in charge of commerce. So what is the goal of such a tax? Mr Motteau's answer sounds incredible : "the city of Angers prompts the store keepers to reconsider the reception of their customers inside their shops". 

Phew! Many people could have believed the tax was devised to make money for the city! The most astonishing is some local medias look to believe such foolishness. In times of harsh difficulties for the Angers downtown store keepers and their customers, such a measure is hardly swallowed. 

Some of them gathered in Ralliement square on saturday and plan to launch a petition against the project. Users of parking facilities in Angers made clear that they will not travel throughout the town with the public transports if the fares were more important. On that field the reasons of the increase of fares, expressed by Vincent Dulong, other deputy-mayor, is those fares should be lower in Angers compared to Le Mans or Nantes. So what?

These measures are symbolic of the present trend in many cities. Avignon intended to implement the same taxe which was cancelled by justice. Instead of decreasing expenses, they choose to increase revenues. Angers is embarked in costly projects and among them the new banks of Maine, a second trolley line, a giant swimming pool, a city for solidarity. To finance such schemes, it should be wiser to reconsider present expenses because too many taxes kill taxes... (Credit picture : Wikipedia)