It is not fun having Arizona lumped in with states like New York, California and New Jersey. Every time a news story goes out about the financial problems of states, it talks about increased taxes and includes Arizona among the top 10 with problems. There’s no way any government agency can cut its spending. That would deny needed services to the increasing cohort of people who need to be serviced. So the natural solution is to increase taxes.

But people are up in arms over taxes, not the least of which are property taxes. Most real estate is still carried at the values determined before the crash. That’s not fair, but governments need our money — more, they say, than we do.

The poster child for municipal mismanagement has to be New York. They set the standard. As long as a particular tax in our valley is less than New York’s, it can be said that it is not too bad. I recommend you be careful who you say that to. But there are still bargains to be had here.

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There are fees and taxes in some locations that we don’t have at all. New York City charges for emergency responses. Need paramedics or a cop? Be prepared to be billed for the fire engines, ambulances and police that appear. Such taxes are referred to as “cash for crash” fees. In Tucson, there’s no extra charge.

In Washington, the mayor has proposed streetlight user fee. An extra a $4.25 a month on everybody’s electric bill covers that use. In Tucson, street lighting is free, at least where there is any.

Many states are taxing digital downloads of all kinds. Not here. Hey, Californians, come on over to Arizona to fill your hard drives.

In California if you inadvertently underestimate your income taxes, they impose a 20 percent penalty. Arizona is far more reasonable.

Oregon, which still has no sales tax, is considering charging motorists a tax based on miles driven. We don’t do that, either. Come on down and drive around. We would love for you to see our state’s beautiful scenery.

New York wants to add 18 percent tax on food and drink they say is fattening. But you can still get a pizza or chimichanga in Arizona without paying an obesity tax. Enjoy.

Some cities collect a tax on plastic bags. We don’t do that. Some localities tax those plastic ring things that hold six-packs together. They say they kill fish. We don’t have any fish to kill, so plastic ring things are not separately taxed. 

Many cities impose a parking tax. They charge you for going and they charge you for stopping. We have very little on-street parking. Most of it is downtown and is metered. Most of the parking outside of downtown is off-street. There are zillions of off-street parking spaces all over the region.

A source who did not want to be identified for reasons that will become apparent, suggested a tax on off-street parking. We would be the first jurisdiction to impose such a tax, he bragged. That would put us on the map.

Yes, the map of places to avoid.

Contact Lionel Waxman at territorial@waxmanmedia.com or visit his website: www.waxmanmedia.com. Lionel Waxman’s Flashpoint commentaries are published in The Daily Territorial.