Wow, I bet a bunch of people who read this blog just had their blood pressure jump. There's probably fewer subjects that are more volatile than this one right here.
I'm not talking about federal income tax. While I do have my opinions on that, it's not something I feel like expressing here. I'm not even talking about the most influential tax that I feel should be implemented, a huge gas tax. Could there be anything in the United States that would impact our country more than having to pay an extra $5 per gallon? It would be pretty awesome in my opinion. If you disagree, read the book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" and then feel free to comment.
No, here I'm talking about state sales taxes. Can anyone honestly claim they fully understand how your state sales taxes work? What you'll be taxed when, and how much? I am happy to admit I am 100% ignorant on the subject. I couldn't have even thrown out a number without looking it up, and even now, I'm still confused.
A few years ago, when Liz and I started cracking down on our budget, I started grocery shopping with her. Not to help pick items out, but to be her personal calculator, keeping a running total of how much the grocery items we'd collected would cost. I actually take a lot of pride in being able to nail the total right on the button. We always play the guessing game in the checkout aisle, and I can usually hit our total within $1. I can't help but feeling proud when Liz strokes my ego with a drawn out "Woooooow" too.
The point of my story, is that the first time I started shopping with her, I had no idea how much to account for sales tax. 5%? 7%? I dunno? So at that time our total came to roughly $120 without tax. So I guessed $135? Do you know in our state, that a grocery bill of $120 would generate a tax of only $2.40?
Are you as surprised as I was? The tax on groceries is only 2%. Liz just came home after picking up a few items for dinner tonight. She spent $9 and was taxed a whopping 18 cents. Now I realize other things like hotels and electronics are taxed more, like 6% to 8%, but it's all relative in my opinion.
Most people would say "that's awesome, what's wrong with a low tax rate". Here's where my opinion changed.
I heard on the radio a few weeks ago, that one local county would only have to increase their sales tax rate by .25% in order to save several hundred teacher jobs that would soon be laid off. It wasn't done, obviously, because all taxes are bad nowadays (apparently). Why not do that though?!?! It's not too often that a tax is instituted that would go directly to one announced cause. And would anyone seriously notice? I know I wouldn't, and I guarantee 99.9% of anyone else would either.
I'll take it one step further, why don't they increase the sales tax by 2% more and make the local schools absolutely awesome?? If that's what it would take to cure a current problem, why don't they just do it?!
The downside is that it would never be taken away. Not only would it never be taken away, it would then be diluted into other forms of funding until the original "for the schools" cause is no longer necessary. Maybe that's where local politicians can go from good to great? Announce what the tax was for, and announce when it's being taken away. It's probably not that easy, and that's where my ignorance comes in on the way it could or could not be done.
Taxes shouldn't be used to cure all government problems, but when offered as a direct solution to a current problem, not to mention a temporary one, I don't see how that's bad. Please don't comment with a one-sided political argument about how all taxes are bad. I'm just talking about a measly sales tax here. Government spending and regulation is a massive problem, I understand that, but what I heard on the radio and what I see on my receipt doesn't seem to add up to me. If I can pay an extra $1 on a grocery bill so several hundred teachers can save their jobs, sign me up immediately.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Tax Me More Please
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3 comments:
Amen on the gas tax, my friend. Hot, Flat, and Crowded disciple here. People think we're nuts for saying that (what about the people who won't be able to afford to drive to work? Right, the same people with the giant cell phone bill and new flat screen tv?) but I totally support it. I don't even care what happens to the money they raise, though I think it should go to renewable energy research incentives. Too bad no politicians would ever pass something so ballsy. And I realize that some people can barely afford to drive to work and DON'T overspend in other areas and I don't have an answer for that.
In general, though, I'm a lower-tax kind of person. Mostly because I think when we give our government money, they spend it irresponsibly. I would rather give my money to private organizations I trust to spend the money carefully. But, when we're talking about schools it can be a different story. Schools in neighborhoods that aren't affluent don't have the parental involvement and fundraisers needed to make the schools great and so, in that situation, we probably have to trust the government to distribute wisely and to follow up to see that the schools are meeting expectations.
On a sort of different subject, I don't think that fresh produce should be taxed, period. And corn and soybean subsidies should go away immediately.
By: Hillary on October 4, 2011 at 10:35 PM
Hey Hillary,
I definitely agree with you on corn/soybean subsidies, I would love for them to go away, I'd prefer if instead they subsidized healthy produce. I think the tax on produce is low enough that it probably isn't worth making a more complex sales tax system to remove it.
I have to disagree with you re:government spending. Not because government always spends well, but because I think the private sector sometimes spends it even worse. Huge pay going to CEOs, just sitting on huge amounts of money during a recession, and the worst part: spending it to basically buy elections/politicians and influence perceptions (huge, scary example in NC: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all ).
By: Jacob on October 4, 2011 at 11:31 PM
Mike - Yeah, I'd definitely pay more in taxes to save some teachers' jobs, but why does it need to come from a sales tax? Personally, I'd prefer a more progressive tax like the income tax.
Hot, Flat, and Crowded sounds really interesting. I'll add it to my list.
By: Lynn Garcowski on October 6, 2011 at 3:03 PM
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