A commenter on my last post on "Doing Better" pointed out that there are some pdf excerpts of the booklet to the right of the screen. He says that I might just agree with some of the ideas in there, and he was right. But not without caveats:
- Idea 1: Broaden the sales tax base. (Disagree. "Broadening" means hiding taxes and death by a thousand cuts. The fewer the taxes and narrower the base, the more transparent they are.)
- Idea 2: Modernize sales taxes for new economy. (Agree as long as extending taxes to services is revenue neutral — i.e. reduces the burden on goods. Not sure about taxing the Internet just yet.)
- Idea 3: Raise cigarette taxes for public health. (Disagree. This is a largely regressive tax and it reeks of social engineering. If more people smoke, you get more revenue but more unhealthy people. If fewer people smoke, you get fewer smokers but less revenue for other public health issues. Dumb idea, which they admit. Still, they’re happy to force people to stop smoking, revenues be damned. Nanny statist.)
- Idea 4: Enact a state Earned Income Tax Credit. (Agree if this replaced social welfare programs. Negative income tax is an ok idea if it stands alone, but not if it adds to the status quo.)
- Idea 5: Modernize state income brackets. (Disagree This is a "soak the rich" tax and works against investment and growth.)
- Idea 6: Deal with hidden income tax increases. (Not sure about this one. Sounds ok on its face.)
- Idea 7: Rethink tax relief based on age alone. (Not totally hostile to this. But it leaves an already screwy senior entitlement system in place.)
- Idea 8: Eliminate corporate tax loopholes. (Disagree. We should stay away from corporate taxes. In fact, they should be banned wholesale. They make industies less competitive at home and abroad and the costs of such taxes just get shifted back onto consumers.)
- Idea 9: Enact a property tax circuit breaker. (Like this alright, except for the "ability to pay" bit. Let’s shield everyone from excessive property taxes. People who "can pay" may want to support a charity or put a kid through college.)
- Idea 10: Strengthen accountability. (Sounds ok. We could add some measures to this.)
- Idea 11: Conduct performance reviews. (Sounds ok. I’d add internal financial incentives for bureaucrats to find cost-saving measures and enhanced quality.)
I probably didn’t give the attention to the booklet that it deserves, but stuff like this is worth extended discussion and blogging. I know the BetterSouth.org folks would appreciate it. That said, beware of the Lakoff-like ‘taxes are our friends’ thrust of the document. Further comments and thoughts are welcome. (Thanks to Greg Flynn for pointing these excerpts out.)
-Max Borders
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