Dear NC Legislature
Submitted by James on Wed, 05/12/2010 - 8:27am
Want to know why we're in the toilet when it comes to the state budget? It's not because we're spending too much. It's because we're not paying enough taxes.
Federal, state and local taxes — including income, property, sales and other taxes — consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That rate is far below the historic average of 12% for the last half-century.
For all those elected officials who want to go back to the good old days, the fabulous era of growth and prosperity ushered in by the baby boom, get on the stick and reset tax rates on high income earners. It's a no brainer.
Taxes
The General Assembly can't go raising taxes on average stiffs while giving away the state's tax base through an insane incentives policy. We're subsidizing Google, Dell, Merck, Novartis, the NASCAR Hall of Fame etc. etc. all the while cutting teacher positions, mental health programs, drug courts etc. etc. etc. The solution is not to increase taxes but stop giving them away to big corporations.
We're subsidizing the rich
...it's time to tax those m@##$f*&%ers in proportion to what THEY use.
The General Assembly should increase the tax rate and the surtax on those making $250,000 or more.
And the Congress should increase the high-income and capital gains tax rate to at least what it was when Bill Clinton was President.
We're living in some f&^%ed up times when we can have lower taxes on the wealthy and less support for the general commonwealth -- or at least a frickin' budget surplus like we did in the 90s.
The incentives are a drop in the bucket
The structural rates are the core of the problem. I don't know anyone who advocates raising taxes on average stiffs. It's the top end earners who can and should be paying more.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Thanks for the link, but...
...this is complete nonsense. Thanks, though, for reinforcing a conservative stereotype of liberals.
Social Security, alone, at about 15% (half of it hidden from most workers, as an "employer contribution"), takes more than 9.2%.
Add to that 7.75% in NC sales tax on most items (less on some, more on others). Plus, income taxes (state and federal, corporate & personal), property taxes, gasoline taxes & other excise taxes, alcohol & tobacco taxes, import duties, unemployment insurance taxes, license fees (driving, car registration, professional licenses, privilege licenses, etc.).
It seems like every few weeks another tax goes up. For instance, effective of 1/1/2011 we'll be hit with the new ObamaCare tax on economic desperation: the Democrats doubled the penalty from 10% to 20% (plus income tax) on non-exempt withdrawals from HSAs, a tax which will only be paid by by people in desperate economic straits (and to rub salt in the wound they restricted what is exempt).
Taxes have been going up and up, in almost every category, especially in high tax states like NC. (Note that New Hampshire has no sales tax except on hotel bills and restaurant meals, and no personal income tax.)
In fact, on average, Americans pay about 27% of their income in taxes -- not counting inflation (a hidden tax on savings, through the debasing of the currency), and not counting the soaring budget deficits (which will eventually have to be paid for). See:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday/
Dave
Sorry Dave...
But I know how easy it is for you to equate "earned income" (from wages, salaries, and tips) with "all personal income" (from which the 9.2% number is derived). Social security tax, as you well know, is paid only on "earned income." Furthermore, income tax rates on other sources of income (from capital gains, for example) are much lower that rates on that so-called "earned income." The IRS publishes data from individual income tax returns on the breakdown of various sources of income, and, believe it or not, the percentage of income from "wages, salaries, and tips" is not as large as you might think.
The fact of the matter is that the tax code values wealth over labor, period. The "working man" (and woman) get royally screwed in that regard.
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Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. -- sign on Einstein's office wall.
What about the rest of the taxes?
So, add 15.2% onto that since everyone pays SS taxes.
and this only mentions income taxes while at the state and local levels sales taxes have been increasing and expanding, property taxes are rising, gas taxes, business taxes, corporate taxes, blah blah blah.
To try and say we aren't taxed enough and use a calculation that looks at ONLY the income tax is beyond silly. Almost silly enough to make me want to go to a T.E.A party just out of spite....almost but not quite.
Income
Well that certainly does explain why there is such a wide income gap in North Carolina. It seems as if the rich are so far above the middle and not so middle class. Thanks for posting this.
Maybe I'm missing something
Maybe I'm missing something here Packman. Doesn't it say that the figure was based on federal, state, local, income, sales and property? Yet you post that it doesn't. Which is it? I follow that SS isn't included but if it wasn't included in previous examinations then that is neither here nor there as far as if taxes are up or down.
I'm a moderate Democrat.