Posted on 01/07/2009 4:47:20 PM PST by neverdem
After I wrote a recent column on the fiscal mess in some states, I got an e-mail from a beleaguered New Jersey resident asking what I thought were the prospects for a tax revolt in the Garden State. It is an interesting and pertinent question because tax uprisings tend to occur during difficult and uncertain economic times, especially in places where the first impulse of state and local governments is to raise taxes to make up for shortfalls in revenues.
The two most notable tax revolts in recent memory, for instance, occurred in the mid-to-late 1970s and again in the early 1990s. Tax increases during those difficult years pushed the state and local government tax burden above 10 percent of income, on average, across the country and even higher in some places, like California, where it topped out at 11.7 percent in 1977. That helped spark perhaps the most notable of all state anti-tax campaigns, the Proposition 13 initiative of 1978, which capped property tax increases in the Golden State and inspired taxpayer uprisings elsewhere, leading to 13 similar tax caps, including Proposition 2½ in Massachusetts. Though expressed entirely in local initiatives, the anti-tax sentiment stirred up in those years was so powerful that it’s often credited with helping elect Ronald Reagan president in 1980.
Memories are short in government, however, and a decade later, when the American economy was again slowing, governors, mayors and legislatures began hiking taxes again, sparking the next tax revolt. One of the most visible victims of this uprising was New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio, who faced a $3 billion budget deficit in 1991 and promptly asked for $2.8 billion in new taxes--at the time the largest single-year tax increase ever imposed by a state. Although Jersey had been, as recently as the 1960s, one...
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Not in this neck of the woods.
It would appear that in this country, all revolts are a thing of the past unless it entails a bunch of smelly liberals clogging up the streets and defiling churches, things like that.
MM
The problem with anytype of revolt, the persons involved would likely end up being killed the the gov’t thugs [called the irs] their famlies thrown in a dungon/jail cell for ever. Then their names would be striken from every database that ever existed, so NO one ever, thinks of doing that sort of thing ever again....
I’m on a tax strike. No income —> no income tax. That’ll fix ‘em.
Or a racist muzzy demanding Jew’s go back to the oven’s
1 Year. America might be ready for a change, 2 years it could happen.
But I don’t see a farm team, or a leader for Conservatives. Just chatter
Add the substantial percentage of complete fools who LIKE paying taxes (to wit, the failed ballot initiative here in MA), and there is no chance of reigning in this government. None. Cannot and will not happen, until the system utterly collapses and everybody, including those who feel safe in their government-provided lives, are forced by the collapse to endure a period of chaos, real hardship, and probable war.
That’s not a “revolt” it’s just revolting!
Yes. Do we have a choice?
Many taxes are well-camoflaged & are euphamistically referred to as “user fees”. The taxes here in Pennsylvania that are going nuts are Property Taxes since they are exclusive source of revenue for public schools & the teachers unions in PA strike at the drop of a hat. With falling property values I’d have to think that the State has a moral duty to drop property assessments to reflect realistic market values (fat chance of that happening. They’d just jump the millage, anyway).
I’m not sure of the mechanics of a property tax strike since property taxes are included in most conventional mortgages. Elderly people are screaming for tax relief because many of them own their homes (no mortgage) and they get a huge bill 2 times a year.
To kill a snake you cut off its head !
Well, collapse it will. The Soviet Union collapsed because there is always a tipping point at which the people will refuse to do what is dictated by a tyranny.
We’d all be better people if we held one helluva Debt Revolt instead.
Our leaders are killing us.
During the French Revolution they beheaded everyone who had ever worked for the French tax service.
Yes since only the top 10% pay enuff to hurt. This of course has been the democrats goal all along.
We need to get people to realize that govt-run schools are not spending money wisely and waste money. The whole education system gets a free rise because nobody questions the lack of results.
It’s a ripoff.
Any kind of revolt is a thing of the past.
That's federal income tax. When you add in all the other taxes, fees, etc., the middle class is hurting now.
I’m ready for it! The state and federal are all bleeding us dry and have for years. If you make 30,000 a year and have no dependants they always have! Tell me when and I will be there!!!
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