Pay your tax bill, United Bridge, so the children won't suffer

No one likes to pay taxes, absolutely no one.

But most of us do pay our fair share of taxes, albeit grudgingly. Corporations, on the other hand, squeal like stuck pigs if they have to pay taxes.

Please, Mr. United Bridge Builders

Some launch a public relations campaign. Others quietly hire a legion of high-priced and well connected lawyers to prevent them from paying their fair share. Just like the rest of us pay our fair share.

If we don't, the government crushes us with threats and buries us in inane paperwork. The sledgehammer threat is the one that says we will garnish your wages if you don't pay us the money we are owed. Even jail time is threatened.

But corporations have something we don't have – the clout and the money to hire these top guns to make subtle changes in an obscure law so they don't pay their fair share.

So, after a few phone calls, letters and emails – just to inflate the billable hours – and the inclusion of a two-sentence paragraph in the state's budget bill, United Bridge Builders, the owner of the South Norfolk Jordan Bridge is exempted from paying $729,000 a year in taxes to the city of Portsmouth.

Because politicians paid more attention to lawyers than to people, Portsmouth can't hire more teachers to teach the children.

Because Mayor Alan Krasnoff of Chesapeake, a rich city, cut his own deal with United Bridge Builders, Portsmouth, a poor city struggling for every penny, is out $729,000 to pay for after school programs for poor children.

Because Portsmouth's politicians (except for Sen. Louise Lucas) really aren't interested in commenting, Portsmouth loses money to build a community or to save a community that is failing.

Because of politics, money and connections, United Bridge Builders doesn't have to pay its fair share of taxes, which benefit the entire community.

The Machiavellian plot hatched somewhere in the bowels of an office highlights the inequities in our region.

There is an income disparity not only between individuals and families in this region, as well as this country. The inequity exists every time you travel from one city to the next in this region. And the income gap widens.

Hampton Roads is a microcosm of the world. Some cities represent developed nations while others represent third world countries. Some prosper; others struggle. 

We mouth the politics of regionalism and mimic a family. Yet in reality each city is a self-serving parody of a selfie.

Meanwhile, United Bridge Builders charges us $1.50 one way for the the privilege of traversing its bridge spanning the southern branch of the Elizabeth River. Don't forget – it owns the bridge, so it isn't in the public domain and not considered a public good, but that could be an argument best left to debaters, pomaded pundits and empty heads.

In Hampton Roads, some cities are more equal than others.