Income tax opponents still care about the state
As the issue of whether or not Tennessee will or will not have a state income tax continues to consume the state legislature, I would just like to make a few observations.
First, those who do not favor an income tax are not “toothless rednecks.” While it may be true many of these people do not have college degrees, or blue-blooded pedigrees, it is both unfair and mean-spirited to call them “toothless rednecks.”
The toothless rednecks are generally good, hard-working people, who recognize their tax burden, when one factors in federal, state, and local taxes we all pay is heavier then at any time since World War II. It strikes me that whenever government, be it at the federal, state or local level, plunges ahead with new schemes to raise revenue, the one question no one ever bothers to consider is “can the toothless rednecks, (the ones who pay most of the taxes), afford it?”
It is said under the income tax proposal now under consideration, the “upper middle class” will bear most of the burden. This begs the question, who is the upper middle class, what income level determines whether or not the government considers you to be upper middle class, and just as importantly, who gets to make the decision?
By far the worst feature of the proposed state income tax is everyone realizes, (even the toothless rednecks) that within just a few short years of passage, the state government will find itself in another budgetary crisis, and the only solution will be to raise the income tax rate from 4.5 percent. That will happen just as surely as the sun rises in the east.
Its supporters say the state income tax is our salvation. One need look no further than our neighbor to the north, Kentucky, to see the fallacy of that. Kentucky finds itself in a budgetary hole as deep or deeper than Tennessee, notwithstanding the fact they have both a state income tax and a lottery.
At any rate, those who oppose a state income tax should not have their patriotism or their commitment to Tennessee questioned by income tax supporters. They care just as much, if not more, about the state and its future.
Paul W. Farley
204 S. High Street
McMinnville