leviathan says you do not need that money

This is the week in Mexico when I feel as if I am a part of my community.

It is the week when I pay my taxes and fees to The Powers That Be, in high hopes the money will  be put to good purpose. And it is the week when I indulge in a toxic mixture of hubris with a dash of schadenfreude.

Let's get to my misplaced chutzpah first.

In January, I have four bills to pay for the full year. Property taxes. Water, sewer, and garbage. Car registration. Postal box rental.

And here is what I paid -- with its US dollar equivalent.

• Property taxes on a 4000 square foot house: $2,280 (Mx); $121 (USD). Let me remind you that is for a full year.
• Water, sewer, and garbage: $1825 (Mx); $97 (USD)
• Car registration: $637 (Mx); $34 (USD)
• Post office box: $300 (Mx); $16 (USD) 

I had read a rumor that property taxes had doubled this year. They may have for some homeowners. Mine increased by only $321.24 (Mx) -- about $17 (USD). A 16% increase.

As a benchmark, the car registration increased 9%; my water, sewer, and garbage fee increased by 6%. All three* well above Mexico's inflation rate of 4.9%. But that is just another good example of why "inflation" and "cost-of-living" are not the same thing (lunch up north).

Mexico is quickly changing its procedures for paying these annual levies. But I prefer the old ways. I pay two of the bills in our county seat (Cihuatlán), one in Barra de Navidad, and the last in San Patricio.

Driving and standing in line takes at least a half day. But "the standing in line" is worth it. It gives me an opportunity to polish some of the jagged edges off of my Spanish -- and I always gain a lot of local lore simply by eavesdropping.

It reminds me of the voting lines in the Old Country -- up until Oregon switched over to the impersonal voting-by-mail, where a civic ritual was reduced to an exercise in dropping an envelope into a postal box. Standing in line with my neighbors has to suffice as a substitute for the lost days of American civic ritual.**

I now sit at my desk a bit enriched having done my duty -- and just a bit too smug about the fact that if I had just paid similar bills up north, I would be sitting on a far skinnier wallet. 

* - The postal box rental has not changed for the ten years I have had the box.

** - If I follow through on my plan to attain Mexican citizenship, I will once again be able to stand in line to vote.