You wrote:
“... why should other, more-tax friendly states have to subsidize the heavily-taxed one?...”
You’ve hit the nail right on the head.
I happen to live in TN, a pretty low cost-of-living state. I often have to listen to my peers back at ‘corporate headquarters’ in Delaware complain bitterly about their high local taxes (property and state). Note: our salaries are paid on a ‘national’ scale so the pay for a given level are the same, regardless of where one lives.
I just smile and happily report the size of my house and what little property taxes I have to pay, including our 18 acre lot. Plus the fact that TN has NO state income tax.
OTOH, ‘they’ get to deduct their state, local, and property taxes off their federal tax return. That doesn’t fully even things out... but it does mean that we low-taxed regions are subsidizing the high-taxed regions of the country.
Even so, it’s these high-taxed states whom are in the most trouble. Something’s going to give and I sure hope it’s not a federal bailout of the states/cities. That will mean even more money being taken from the Red areas to subsidize the Blue areas...
benefits and drawbacks to wherever you live; you make the choice. I’m paying 6 bucks a gal for fuel and rediculous prices for food but no moving for me. It seems somewhat ironic that those who have reaped the wonders of urban life now complain of the costs?
The potential subsidizing of high cost blue states by the red states is in effect the exact type of policy practiced by the liberals.
libs have no interest in raising up people to become more successful but prefer to drag the successful ones down to mediocrity. You can see this in the federal tax code.
Rather than let the blue states fail due to the tax burdens they subject their citizens to, they wish to “balance out” the equation by making the thriving red states pay for the excesses practiced by the blue states in the name of “fairness”.
Just take a look at the growth states in this country and it will be quickly apparent that the leaders are the ones with lower costs and low taxes.
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/gdp_state/gsp_newsrelease.htm
Why would any sane person penalize these states? Could this ever be beneficial for the country?