Despite strong opposition, the tax-sharing plan helped strengthen the entire region, said Myron Orfield, a Minnesota state legislator and nationally recognized urban scholar. Not doing anything guarantees failure. Or contact your state legislature. In life, the only guarantees are said to be death and taxes. For a city, high taxes can guarantee a quick demise.
Some cities cheat death by cutting taxes and improving services.
Others that stick with outmoded tax policies end up withering away. Dublin, Ireland, and Philadelphia offer a tale of how two cities confronted death by taxes. After slashing taxes for these firms from 46 percent to 10 percent, nine of the 10 largest drug companies in the world set up shop in Ireland. As did nearly every major computer firm, including Intel, Dell, Compaq and Microsoft. Ireland is now the largest exporter of computer software in the world.