Posted on 02/17/2005 2:15:32 PM PST by Rakkasan1
Who proposes a new tax hoping to see not a penny in revenue? A Montana legislator who wants to change the way Wal-Mart pays its workers there.
Sen. Ken Toole, D-Helena, is sponsoring a bill that all but names Wal-Mart as the object of the tax: A big retailer that doesn't pay an entry-level salary of at least $22,000 a year and that hires more than half part-timers will be charged a progressive tax of 1 to 2 percent on its gross receipts over $20 million a year.
It's just the latest proposal by local governments to try to collect more money from Wal-Mart. One spark was a report last year by U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., that
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Go Wal-Mart Go
Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."
It's a Bill of Attainder. It'll never pass even the most sympathetic court review.
What a Toole.
That should increase prices and decrease wages just fine.
Let's see...let's tax the company more to make them pay more...yeah, right...Montana doesn't have enough people to make Walmart need their business that much....
And we are pro-walmart because?
Personally I'm anti-socialist, and the socialists are anti-Walmart.
I'm neither pro or anti Wal-mart, but these pols are fools if they don't understand businesses don't pay taxes- they just pass them on to customers (and sometimes also employees)
I do appreciate Wal mart standing up to not being bullied by union thugs.
Shades of Twentieth Century Motor Company - Atlas Shrugged.
If you want to influence businesses to hire more full time employee's - give the businesses a tax break then they hire full time employees.
It really is that simple.
If the tax applies to their competition, Wal-Mart will still have an edge. They'll stay and make money.
If the tax only applies to Wal-Mart, they could close up shop like the did with the store in Canada when the unions moved in.
Here we go again!
But these union lobbyists have nothing else to do anyway.
The reason people need money is so they can exchange it for products and services of greater use and value. Because of a WalMart, it takes less money for anybody to have a median standard of living. When you start paying kindergarten teachers $100,000 (as they are proposing in Hawaii, and probably places like Minnesota and San Francisco) the cost of living goes to infinite -- but one's standard of living drops to nearly zero.
You can't exchange your $100,000 for the necessary brain surgery; instead, that money has to go to pay the babysitter -- so you can't get the brain surgery.
--and , in case this goes on to be the usual Wallyworld thread, everything bad that will be said about Wal-Mart, I heard people of my grandparents' age say about Kroger--fifty five years ago--
The tax only applies if your company makes more than $20 million a year and fits certain other rules. The rules have been designed to only affect Wal-Mart. So says the story:
"Toole's homework told him that even the biggest grocery stores in Montana don't reach $20 million a year. It also told him that Costco pay scales will protect it from the tax. That pretty much leaves the world's largest retailer, which has 11 stores in the state of about 1 million people."
They could close all the stores in Montanta, or threaten to stop buying from Montana-based suppliers (if there are any).
but it's worse than that....read the whole article, and you will see that California, Minnesota, Georgia, and who knows what other state are all proposing legislation of one form or another designed to put the squeeze on WalMart.
You're right. I just don't usually believe what I read or see in the media.
If the tax is only a couple of percent, Wal-Mart can still be profitable. They have a big margin edge on small companies.
I guess we'll see.
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