Crime-Stricken Oakland Businesses Threaten to Refuse Paying Taxes

Businesses in blue cities have been hurting bad due to Democrat administrations’ tolerance for crime and criminals. In Oakland, California, the patience of small business owners is wearing thin to the point that some of them have threatened to stop paying local taxes.

Earlier this month, Moneywise reported that rising crime in Oakland has hurt local business so bad that business owners have threatened a business tax boycott. The story cited Jose Ortiz, owner of La Perla Restaurant in Oakland, expressing his frustration with the city administration:

“Enough is enough. We’re frustrated, so we’re not going to pay taxes to the city until they give us what we want.”

The story informs that Ortiz’s restaurant has been robbed twice at gunpoint while police rarely patrols the area. Ortiz and a number of other small business owners are now threatening not to pay local taxes until the city administration starts effectively dealing with the city’s crime crisis.

Another resident Nestor Sanchez, manager at Cybelle’s Pizza, told media that they live in fear for their lives as their sales have dropped by 20% with his Pizzeria robbed twice and burglarized twice in the month of January alone.

Michael Reagan of Townhall.com called this tax revolt “a Hopeful Insurrection” in his opinion piece published on Saturday (March 23). Reagan opined:

“The tax revolt of small businesses in Oakland is only a spark so far, but it could become a ray of hope for people living in our battered cities.”

Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte of Alameda Superior Court recently called out Oakland’s Democrat mayor Sheng Thao for running the city over with surging crime. The New York Post reported (March 13) that around 200 businesses in the city have pledged to join a possible rent strike over their safety concerns. Concerned citizens have also launched a petition to recall Mayor Thao at the website www.recallshengthao.org. Among the many complaints included in the petition, one addresses the Mayor directly about the rise in crime:

You created a public safety crisis by systematically dismantling the Oakland Police Department, leading to the city’s reputation as one of the most dangerous in America.

Meanwhile, the priorities of Oakland’s administration seem to be targeted at peaceful residents and senior citizens who themselves are the victims of crimes and vandalism. In a recent incident that made headlines, the city threatened a 102-year-old and wheel chair-bound resident with $1100 in fine because his fence was vandalized with graffiti and he had not cleaned it up.