Philadelphia Asks Bloggers for $300 License Fee
This morning my attention was quickly drawn to a new policy enacted in Philadelphia, in which the city seems to be asking bloggers to apply for business licenses.
The fee for said licenses? $300. A fee that is outrageous and inexplicable in almost any context, much less for bloggers who, 99.9% of the time, aren't making any money anyway.
Sure I understand the rationale--the city's budget is screwed, everyone is in the red, tax revenue is down, yada, yada, yada. But this is still inexcusable. And not only is it a drag on small business and entrepreneurial spirit, but I'd call it a blatant constitutional violation of our freedom of speech, as well.
What if I want to start up a blog to voice my opinion, but have only $50 in my checking account? Does that mean my opinion doesn't count? Does that mean I don't deserve the right to voice my opinion with the same potential audience any other blogger has the right to?
This is low, Philly. Just low. There are better ways, and ways that don't infringe on people's rights and essentially constitute stealing from your citizens.
There's never a good excuse for holding someone back from a blog. There's never a reason anyone should have to pay to voice their opinion online. And there's never, ever a legitimate reason for our government to make people pay to exercise their freedom of speech.
Let them blog!
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