Posted on 03/15/2010 6:28:11 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Idahoans may soon be able to use silver to pay taxes
By Dustin Hurst
March 15th, 2010
If Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, has his way, Idahoans could soon be able to pay their taxes with silver medallions produced in the state of Idaho.
Hart said the bill serves several purposes, including creating jobs in Idaho, as well as giving citizens in the state a way to store wealth in what he believes is a more stable form of currency. Hart said that though the U.S. Constitution dictates that the government should use nothing but gold or silver for public currency, the federal government has essentially left that provision “in the rear view mirror.” The bill would give the state treasurer the ability to work with silver processing companies to develop a state medallion that the state would then be forced to accept as payment for taxes.
That, Hart believes, could bring hundreds, if not thousands of job to the state. In conjunction with the creation of the medallion, Hart’s bill would also try to lure silver processing companies to Idaho, and in particular, north Idaho, which, according to Hart, was once called “the silver capital of the world.” The bill would give companies that come to Idaho to process silver for the medallion a 10-year exemption from income taxes, as well as property taxes. The exemption would be open for 20 years and would sunset after that period of time.
(Excerpt) Read more at idahoreporter.com ...
P!
I like the idea, but I am guessing it is unconstitutional. I don’t think states can define their own currency (CA IOUs notwithstanding). The provision that the state must take the medallions could be interpreted as enabling the silver medallions to be currency.
I work on Phil Harts office network on occasion- seems like a very bright, intelligent, nice and capable guy. Engineering/building Background. Not politics.
I would expect we’re about to see a LOT of capable people getting interested in becoming Statesmen.
Does anyone know of a distributor of these medallions? I somehow trust the state of Idaho more than I trust the federal government.
I don’t think it is unconstitutional. The states used to issue notes backed by gold and silver. The constitution merely states-(from memory)- that the states will use nothing but gold and silver for their money. However, as a practical matter the silver will leave the state Gresham’s Law-(if memory serves me correctly.)
This is an interesting development...
Cool idea. Best of luck to them getting it through.
Have you ever read this?
The state is on the right track.
Congressman Billybob
Had the Federal government stuck to gold and silver, and had they adhered to the ORIGINAL tax provisions, things might have turned out ok.
But USA, the Republic, was pretty much destroyed by the passage of the Federal Reserve act.
It allowed the federal government to DECIDE what was legal tender, to PRODUCE AT WILL WITH NO REPERCUSSIONS as much of it as they deemed fit, and to REWARD or PUNISH states, corporations, or people for doing/not doing what they wanted them to do.
Bye bye, Union of Sovereign states.
I can’t read the whole story.
Do they mention whether the silver would be used at face-value of the coin, or would it be a calculation based upon the going rate of silver?
The Federal Reserve Act is more unconstitutional.
Right section, wrong conclusion.
***Idahoans could soon be able to pay their taxes with silver medallions produced in the state of Idaho. **
Back in 1955, My dad worked at the Rattlesnake Mine at La Sal, Utah. Every weekend he would get pain in cash, REAL SILVER DOLLARS!
He would give us kids each a silver dollar each week, but as there was no place to spend them, unless we went into La Sal’s one store or Moab, he said he would keep them for us. we never saw them again.
Gee, this is like fishing in a barrel.
If you read the constitution, it’s paper money that’s unconstitutional! So don’t go there.
In any case if they were to try this they would run into exactly the same problem the U.S. and everyone else has run into trying to use commodity money. It fluctuates in value apart from the nominal face value and is thus driven out of circulation at some times, and glutted at other times.
Maybe they could use them as a local currency though, why not? It’s not illegal to use gold or silver or wampum or tobacco as money, it’s just illegal for a lender to refuse U.S. dollars in the payment of debts taken out in U.S. dollars.
Wow! You lived in La Sal? I have travelled that area pretty extensively, and love to pore over old historical accounts of that time period. Did you know Kent Frost??
I spoke with a Mexican national years ago, and he claimed that there was a thriving business in scrap metal - pesos melted down and sold to scrap dealers in the US. The peso was so devalued that it was worth more that way.
Another example - recently I visited S. Korea and carried back some coinage. I noticed that the new 10 won coin was less than half the size of an older one of the same denomination.
Silver should be a good mode of exchange, and hedge against inflation, as long as it sells by the ounce...
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