Let's say you have a tax base of 1,000 people and the city provides a service for those people at a cost of $1 per person. They tax each person $1 and that covers the cost. Years go by and the city grows to 10,000. Now they have a tax base of $10,000 to provide the same service to each constituent, so even though there are more people there are more tax dollars to provide the service. So far so good.
When we were young, and it was time to get a driver's license, we went to the Department of Motor Vehicles, stood in line, and took our driver's test. Same day. No problem. Now in 2018, our granddaughter is ready to take her driver's test, but the Department of Motor Vehicles is too busy to administer the driving test until mid-September, a month later! What just happened? We paid our taxes in 1961 and got a service. Now in 2018, we're still paying taxes and they can't provide the service for a month? Sure, there are more people now than there were then, but if there are 10 times as many people that means the local government is collecting 10 times as much money. No matter the population, they have the same amount of money per person to provide the service. Why would the service change?
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