Taking a Stand: No more taxes has consequences
We can’t have our cake and eat it too. If the state is truly against an income tax, then we must be ready to face the consequences the necessary cutbacks will bring with it.
Ever since the debate began raging in the General Assembly about ways to make up the state’s budget deficit, there have been many outspoken people who are dead set against an income tax. Instead of an income tax, they say we must tighten our belts and spend our money more wisely as a state.
While this may be easy to say, I think some of those against alternate ways to raise the revenue our state needs may not appreciate the aftershock such a strategy will cause. Unlike the federal government, which prints its own money and can operate deep in the red for decades, our state has no such option. And, there’s only so many ways to raise revenue so our options are limited.
We must remember the cost of state government climbs every year due to inflation, even if the size of government itself does not increase. It will cost more this time next year to pay the same employee than it does right now.
What we’re paying for now is the result of decades of creative revenue raising whereby a hodgepodge of sales taxes and other revenue initiatives were used to get us by. However, with the slowing of our growth, we are no longer able to rely on these methods and still progress. And, as we know, you either progress or wither on the vine.
Now I’m not going to describe opponents of a state income tax as “toothless rednecks” like other people have done. It’s quite the contrary. The folks who are being vocal and blowing horns at the state capital in protest of an income tax are demonstrating the best part of our democracy. It shows they care enough to have their voices heard.
However, in the end, all the horn blowing means is the person has a horn on his or her car and has the time and inclination to cruise by the state capital in the middle of the day. It doesn’t make them necessarily wrong or right.
As a taxpayer who has very little, if any, extra cash in my account after paying the monthly bills, I’m willing to take the bite either way. And, there will be a bite. We must either pass an income tax or face a dramatic cut in services such as the number of teachers, road repairs, state parks, health care for the poor and in other areas which will hurt on a day-to-day basis.
We must also prepare for skyrocketing unemployment since numerous state employees will have to be laid off or their wages cut dramatically. Contrary to popular belief, there’s not a billion dollars than can be saved just from merely “not wasting” taxpayer dollars. The only way we balance without more revenue is to cut jobs and services.
For you and me this will translate into higher property taxes. The property owners here in Warren County will have to pay much more because we will lose millions in state funding. So, whether you are for or against a state income tax, you will be paying more if you are a property owner. Personally, I’d rather tax all people with income, since most people have income, than the property owners, which represents fewer people.
And, given the fact I make around what the average person makes in Warren County, I, along with most people here, would pay less total tax if we had a state income tax, when it’s combined with the federal income tax.
Hey, I don’t have money to burn so I’m not a spend crazy kind of person. But, it’s obvious to me we’re going to pay somewhere. There’s no magic wand. Our rainy day funds are gone. I’m afraid all we’re doing now with this continued debate is digging a bigger whole which will some day necessitate a state income tax anyway.
(Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)