Taxes
So due to the response from the other post I figured I’d expand upon taxes here, and how they’re good, how they’re bad, and why I don’t agree with the Democrat tax increases they’ve proposed thus far.
Taxes can be good. It pays for good things. It helps build roads and bridges. It provides for the common defense (aka pays for the military), and it helps pay for educational costs. These things are worthy projects, however I feel like the money could be spent much wiser.
Taxes are bad when they allow for people to collect money for doing nothing. Now I understand that people will fall on hard times, and I don’t have any problems with the government giving a hand up (although that can usually be done better through the church or other private sector areas). The government should not give unlimited hand outs. Which the tax increases this session would be needed for welfare roll backs making more people eligible for welfare for longer.
Taxes are bad when they are unfair. The American Dream is to get a job, and to be able to have a home and provide for your family. When the government is taking 8%, 9%, or nearly 10% of your paycheck every week this allows for less money for you and your family. Let’s move to a flat tax, which gives one rate for all income taxes, or a fair tax which totally abolishes the income tax and gets a national sales tax. (I’ll get back to the fair tax and flat tax at a later time and post).
When the government taxes your paycheck you do not spend as much money. The more money people earn, the more money they spend, which means the government earns more in sales tax. It’s been proven that you don’t need high taxes to have a large state revenue. Right now MN has a $2 billion surplus, and our taxes aren’t over the top.
If we keep taxes low on businesses, we get more companies to move here, providing more jobs, providing for more people with money, providing for more money in the state coffers. It’s that simple. The JOBZ program in Minnesota does just that. It allows for tax incentives for businesses to go into rural areas and provide good paying jobs, with benefits, to people. If you tax businesses they’ll move out of the state, look at California. They’ve lost some big businesses, and some good jobs.
I think we need to require that our taxes are doing good. That’s how the private sector works. But the Democrats don’t want to see results, they just want to through more money at the problem. They want to gut the Q-Comp program which pays teachers for performance, making sure students get the best education they can.
They want to move to Universal Health Care, at a cost which will consume the entire state budget within the next 40 years. There are better solutions.
The State has gotten by just fine this past biennium with a $32 billion budget. This year the Governor has agreed to spend the surplus (instead of giving it back to the taxpayer), bringing the spending total to over $34 billion, or about a 9% increase in spending. That’s a much larger increase then the average family.
Looking at the bills there is no reform in any of them, and the taxes the Democrats want to raise money to throw it at the problems, instead of solving the problems.
The government budget should not grow faster than the family budget. We should not pay more taxes when there is a $2 billion budget surplus.
The Democrats are trying to tell people that they are fiscal moderates and they can be responsible. But they aren’t showing that with their actions. I think that the Republicans need to show their working for the common man and vote against the tax increases. They need to protect our wallets and protect our freedoms.
And with that I’ll leave it open to comments.
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I love living in SD where the state doesn’t tax my income but what I spend. I believe that is a fair tax. We get along fine here. Yes we have fewer than 1 million people but still we’re taxed fairly and not on our incomes and I like it that way and I believe that more states should opperate in that manner.
Comment by Lacey — April 16, 2007 @ 11:08 pm
A good argument for the other side. Cuz that’s what I’m here for!
http://www.mnpublius.com/2007/04/16/the-state-of-the-state-legislature/#more-3348
Comment by Hannah — April 17, 2007 @ 6:25 am
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that’s a good argument. But…
1. There is a surplus, and it’s one time money. We can fund a few things with extra cash. But really we should give that money back to the tax payer. It is the taxpayers money anyway, not the states.
2. The Governor is not running for higher office, he’s defending our wallets. The Democrats want to pillage them, and the Governor is saying “No, be responsible spenders”.
3. The Democrats are tax and spenders, always have been, always will be. That’s just their mind set. They want to redistribute wealth. Some would argue that they are one very small step away from socialism. The rich in Minnesota already pay the most taxes. The top 5% of income earners in MN pay 43.08% of income taxes. The bottom 90% of income earners (those who earn under $105,451) pay 44.57% of income taxes. The bottom 20% of Minnesota income earners do not pay any income taxes. In fact, they each got an average of $142 in cash (in the form of refunds and/or credits) from the top earners for having such low income.
4. His argument for his fourth point is this: “Ultimately this state needs more revenue.” Why does the state need more revenue? He doesn’t say way. It’s because we don’t. Let’s open up Health Care insurance to the free market, instead of consuming billions of dollars to make Universal Health Care (which would then be rationed out to people, and you’d have to wait for operations, etc.).
And the voters of MN (and across the USA) but Democrats in power (across the USA) because the media blames George W. Bush and Republicans for the war in Iraq. People don’t pay attention to state issues. The #1 thing I was asked on the campaign trail was about the war in Iraq. People in MN did not put Democrats in power because they felt Democrats could fix their problems. It was more because they felt they were voting for the lesser of two evils on the war.
Comment by bleaus — April 17, 2007 @ 8:34 am
Also, I don’t know if you look through the “Articles I found Interesting” section (on the right side), but this one is good.
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/kersten/?p=151
Comment by bleaus — April 17, 2007 @ 8:52 am
Now here’s a great idea. There may be many people who are down right afraid of this, but I think it is really the best option. If you are one of the millions of American’s who pay their taxes, you have nothing to worry about. If you don’t pay your taxes, tremble and fear!
Comment by BGerdin — April 17, 2007 @ 10:04 am
That sounds like a decent idea, but if we simplify the tax code wouldn’t that make it harder to cheat? Like the Fair Tax or the Flat Tax. I think I’ll probably discuss those in a later post.
Comment by bleaus — April 17, 2007 @ 10:32 am
While I would like to see those two ideas be debated, realistically, I don’t think either of them have a chance right, especially right now. They would both require a complete overhaul of the current tax system. Not only would this be going against what a lot of law makers think, there would also be a ton of corporations with lobbyists to fight against. This would have to be championed by the entire Ways and Means committee, the president, and a large number of senators. With the congress in it’s present state, I think this is currently a lost cause. That’s why I think further empowering the IRS would be a way to collect more taxes without raising them under the current system.
Comment by BGerdin — April 17, 2007 @ 1:11 pm