Friday, November 20, 2009
Politics / Woods Why Doesn't Tennessee's Unfair Tax System Ever Come Up in State Budget Hearings?
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 7:15 AM
Comments (18)
Showing 1-18 of 18
Our "leaders" are cowards who are afraid to do the right thing because the demagogues and horn-honkers will complain.
Lower the sales tax, abolish the sales tax on food, expand the sales tax to things which are now exempt such as legal services, architectural services, accounting services and there are lots of other loophole special exemptions given to the rich and powerful.
Then an income tax with substantial personal exemptions to keep it from being a burden on the middle and lower class.
like
dislike
And let's not leave out the General Assembly. But you are so right! It's not like it's any secret to all those folks that write and pass these budgets. But regressivity is a small-number problem for them. I myself have witnessed several decades of this behavior in Tennessee - passing on the lie that we can fund this state's essential services with a revenue system based heavily on one of the highest sales tax rates in the nation. What we are about to witness is the collision of that lie with the worst economy since the Great Depression.
Thanks once again for connecting the dots, Jeff.
Not only is the Income Tax not mentioned..but other, non-income tax options are never seriously discussed. What about closing corporate tax loopholes by requiring combined reporting of franchise and excise taxes? This could raise up to $200 million a year. And what about collecting 100% of the Hall Tax and sending it to the General Fund instead of back to Belle Meade? These ideas NEVER see discussion but could at least mitigate the current budget problems.
"Maybe if we fixed that inequity, we could afford to pay for basic state government services."
The only inequity that exists is that some people are being required ot pay for services and/or subsidies that are being provided to somebody other than themselves.
And those things, of course, aren't "basic governmetn services" - they are transfer payments.
"By Gilbert's reasoning, insurance premiums are redistribution of wealth."
No point in debating Gilbert here. He believes in a pie in the sky utopia, where if the U.S. just functioned like he believes it should function, everybody would be just la-di-da. People like that really aren't that different than Communists, in that they ignore human nature. But, there is good news! There is a country where the government is weak and decentralized and people can do whatever they damn well please. It's called Somalia. I hear that over there, it's stylish again to be a pirate.
"By Gilbert's reasoning, insurance premiums are redistribution of wealth."
No that is merely your attempt to spin it.
Insurance is a VOLUNTARY contractual arrangement. Either party can evaluate the terms/coverage offered and the pricing and determine if it is acceptable to them or not. The assumption of the specific risk that the individual wants to offload is a service to that specific individual.
It is wealth redistribution when government gets involved and mandates purchase of and/terms of insurance and mandates premium levels to force those individuals who have lower individual risk profiles to pay more than they otherwise could have paid in a free market in order to subsidize those with higher individual risk profiles so that they are able to pay less than they would have had to pay in a free market.
"He believes in a pie in the sky utopia, where if the U.S. just functioned like he believes it should function, everybody would be just la-di-da."
On the contrary, I don't believe in any version of utopia nor do I believe there is any system where everybody would be "la-di-da".
I simply don't care who is or isn't "la-di-da". Each individual is simply responsible for his or her own actions and his or own welfare.
If you want to achieve "la-di-da", go do it own your own and quit trying to pick my pocket to achieve it.
Whether you make it or not makes no difference to me. I'm not responsible for your life.
You see, Gilbert and I are from a time and a place where we never received any undeserved benefit from any government. We're believe if you had the dumb luck to be born into the world at the bottom of the heap -- Well, God help ya' - cause we sure ain't gonna. Haven't you ever heard of Manifest Destiny.
Gilbert, Whatever dude! Like I said, that place that you keep describing is Somalia. You might look into buying some retirement property there to get away from "Obamalism." And you won't have to worry about any kind of authorities to "pick your pocket" or even to protect your property or life. You don't need any government of any kind to do that. You can do that yourself since you are a rugged individualist.
"Gilbert, Whatever dude! Like I said, that place that you keep describing is Somalia."
Not even close.
The absense of a nanny state government does not remotely equal no government.
Physical protection and protecting private property rights ARE the primary responsibilites of government.
Deliberately redistributing wealth for allegedly egalitarian purposes - isn't a legitimate function at all.
Perhaps Gilbert will someday voluntarily work up a more convincing, entirely self-reliant, poke-in-your-Ayn imitation of being a functional member of the human race.
Meanwhile:
This state, particularly those in it hurt most by the regressive system, has been systematically mis-educated and relentlessly propagandized by the more powerful about how "low" taxes are here and about the nightmare evils of having public efforts rise above the bottom of the barrel. They've been convinced that the governor is a "Democrat." And they've been convinced that having this little is free--when it's very expensive, wasteful--and dumb. The system hurts us all. It will take forever to fix it.
First, I must expose the Big Lie. Amen writes "the worst economy since the Great Depression." Connect these dots, Amen! The unemployment rate was higher in 1979! Inflation was higher in 1996! There were more bank collapses in 1983! There are no soup lines! There are no Wall Street jumpers! If you want to get tecnical about it, 1964-1983 was one big recession! I hate beating up on puny intellects, but if you're going to post, back it up!
I agree, taxes should be lowered for everyone. Sales taxes on food and property taxes on primary residences should be abolished.
If we can't create a Utopia on what revenue is left, then we should set priorities, and let private individuals decide how much they donate for services currently delivered with extreme inefficiency by government.
I'll give an example. If you want to donate $100 to help hungry people in the Nashville area, by taking action yourself you can see to it that the full $100 goes to buy groceries. You can do this because your taxes are low. No fraud, no jobs for lazy bureaucrats, and five to six times the benefit to our community!
If you rely on government to do this, the $100 buys $15-$20 of groceries.
The lazy bureaucrat gets a job at the grocery store, and you feel better because you're walking the walk. That's how America is supposed to work.
"Perhaps Gilbert will someday voluntarily work up a more convincing, entirely self-reliant, poke-in-your-Ayn imitation of being a functional member of the human race."
Perhaps someday you will manage to scrape together enough brain cells to become capable of making a salient point about something.
But I doubt it.
People hate income tax because it touches every dollar they earn whereas sales tax feels more under their control. If you buy less, you pay less sales tax.
I believe that TN should maintain its reliance on the sales tax, but make the sales tax burden less regressive by exempting certain basic needs (milk, eggs, fruit, etc.) and raising the sales tax on 'luxury' foods (chips, candy, soda, etc.)
Similarly, the tax could be lowered on basic cars and raised on luxury cars (over $40,000).
It could be lowered on basic clothing (underwear, socks, jeans), but raised on jewelry, furs, purses, etc.
What do you think? Sensible, fair and keeps a lid on the expansion of the bureaucracy that would inevitably ensue were an income tax enacted.
i am sick of these officals with the business as usual where people like me who have been hit by the recession and are so in dispair and so discusted in the entire tennessee unfair tax stystem.. no one seems to care that thousands of tennesseans are out on the streets because they had their place auctioned for taxes because they were laid off..i am sickened and want to SCREAM!!!!!!!!... i too am not far from those people- bring back the TEA PARTIES
