The State(s) of Taxation

As Mike Alissi notes below, many states are facing fiscal crises, largely of their own making. So how do many of them intend to get out of it? By raising taxes on us, of course.

Comments

[some guy]

Yeah, my (nominally) Republican governor can't wait to raise em. Just on cigs and booze though, for now. Oh, and $.06 per gallon for gas. For the children. Of course cutting the budget the tiniest bit - say 1-2% - is just out of the question.

Still, it's better than those govenors who are threatening to empty the jails unless their citizens let them raise taxes. Mine hasn't stooped to that yet.

[Madog]

Gov. Rowland here in CT is planning a 1-2 punch of raising taxes on the rich, and firing as many state workers as possible. Naturally, this has absolutely everyone upset.

A bit more sneaky is cutting aid to the cities, which need to be subsidized in order to have property tax levels their poor residents can pay. Now, some citys are looking at raising taxes or cutting workers. And since raising taxes would just push the wealthy into the suburbs and the poor just can't pay (without needing more services) it looks like they're in a fix.... Of course, if CT didn't spend so much, they wouldn't have a problem.

[Steve]

Well...we (as a society) love those little government handouts. We think we "need" them to survive, so we pay taxes. We've decided (again, as a society), that "promote the general welfare" means, "no child left behind" or "aid to families with dependent children" or "social security".

We bought into it and we have to pay the price. I don't like it, but apparently, enough people in thsi country like to pay taxes and more is better because that way, Uncle Sugar will make sure we have prescription medicines in our old age.

Yeah, lets go out and vote for the same guys again.

[Jim N]

In Illinois we have a budget deficit that may actually be a figment of the imagination. One of our state's libertarian big shots (as far as libertarians can be big shots) has claimed that state revenues are actually up 4% and that the problem is really (prepare to be shocked) government spending. I believe there's a story about it at il.lp.org. Who knows? If we're doing it, other states probably are too.

[Steve]

Of COURSE the problem is government spending. Here in Wisconsin, government employees are up for about a 9% raise. But the Democrat governor is "saying" the right things-cut spending, cut the size of gov't, etc. But we'll see what he "does".