Thurston County Money Mint Department update

No update. Though the new fee structure goes into effect this week.

They must be evaluating how it will cost $1000 to print a permit to operate a PC/fax machine from your home office.

Interesting how the county commissioners have removed all links to the fee structure while re-introducing land grab CAO proposals. In essence, their strategy appears to be two fold:

1. Re-assess critical areas to increase by 300%
2. Re-assess the fee to re-assess the 300% increase re-assessment by 1000%.

I'm not joking on the fee structure. The $1000 permit was $150 3 years ago when I started my home business. It cost 5 cents to print the permit, 37 cents to mail it. The county did nothing else of value. Their side of the story is they had a dozen people run in circles for half a day. Not a big value add to my business nor my neighborhood. The fee I saw for a home based industry (baking cookies?) is $4000 dollars. Also amusing is the county offers no means of legally avoiding their Money Mint Mafia.

Ever wonder how underground businesses operating in the former Soviet Union began?

If the Thurston County Money Mint Mafia set fire to dollar bills all day, then such a cost recovery would be necessary. However, wouldn't it just be smarter to not set fire to the money in the first place? Not if you live in Olympia.