Surcharges

Expect a lot of noise over the next 6 weeks in local media and blogs over the 1% prepared meals tax. Think of it as a surcharge when you go out to dinner. An extra 85 cents on top of that bill at Piedmont, or an extra nickel for a value meal at Mickey D's. Some people think this puts an unfair burden on the lower income folks in our town. I disagree. I believe that the 2% the county collects on items at the grocery store is a much more onerous tax, and i'm not hearing anyone talk about repealing that any time soon. But i'll concede that it's a worthwhile discussion to have, as is the related conversation about what the money should be spent on, assuming the tax is approved.

Here's another surcharge that i just encountered that's not getting anywhere near the attention that the 1% meals tax is. The folks at St Joseph's just dropped an email bomb alerting Blues Festival fans that B.B. King tickets for the opening night event at the Durham Performing Arts Center are available in a special presale. Tickets are priced at $38 for nosebleed seats, to $68 for orchestra and "Grand Tier" seats. No problem there. those prices are a bit high for my pocket, but YMMV. I assume that the prices will be the same when the general public is allowed to buy tickets. But the only way you can buy tickets is through Ticket Master. And Ticket Master is tacking on a whopping $7.75 per ticket, plus an additional "convenience" fee of $2.50 per order, just to be able to print your tickets at home. (You can also have them sent UPS 2 day delivery for about $16 per order, or USPS regular mail for free.) That's an 11% surcharge if you're buying top price tickets, and 20% if you're buying the cheap seats. These are tickets being sold to an event at a taxpayer funded venue. And there don't appear to be any alternatives than TM for buying a ticket. Clicking the link for tickets at the DPAC site take you to the Ticket Master site. If the house sells out, that's a cool $20K in "convenience" charges alone for TM, and as much as a half million per year, depending on how many shows get put on. I can't imagine that TM isn't getting a contract fee to manage ticket sales over and above the "convenience" charge.

That should be raising a few more eyebrows than whether or not Durhamites want to tax ourselves (and our visitors) a penny for each dollar we spend eating out, no?