Posted on 07/14/2011 8:34:01 AM PDT by Azeem
"Without raising taxes and by carefully watching spending, Indiana state government has continued to live within its means," Berry said. "For those who believe that raising taxes is the only way out of a fiscal crisis, I say take a look at the Hoosier state."
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
In Missouri there is the “Hancock Amendment” which provides money back to taxpayers when the State ends up more than 2% in the black I believe.
The fact is that budget revenues are merely estimates and if your State gets a windfall that increases revenue dramatically, it should go into your coffers as either a payment on accrued debt or into a reserve if your State is debt free (all States carry debt at this point).
But I agree that the reserve coffers need to be limited so that the State is not stagnating a lot of taxpayer money.
I see the point of the state keeping some money on hand, however if that money is indeed my tax dollars and the state is just going sit on it, then in effect I am forced to give the state an interest free loan.
Based on 2009 numbers, we have 6,423,113 in population. So that 1.2B works out to about $187.00 per person.
Thats a good day at the grocer, or about 2.5 tanks of gas in the pickup. Nothing to sneeze at, but not a lot to get worked up over. Like I said: I’d rather they keep than hit me up for more later.
Now if that number keeps going up, then yea, they’re taking in too much money, and they can rebate it by lowering taxes even more.
That’s what frustrates me when I see people get all giddy when they get a large tax refund every year. I see no joy in getting back a loan that I was forced to give for no interest.
When dealing with a Nation or “State” as it were, running around a 1 to 2% surplus or deficit is about where you want to be at all times. A little under, a little over, and hopefully right at 0 over the long haul.
A little cushion at this time seems prudent.
$187.00 for someone who is unemployed is a big deal. I’m proud of my state and happy things are going well but I could use that money better than having it sit in some account (drawing interest? - which I don’t see) owned by the state.
The Demos in the House ran away, not the Senators. Demo Senators in Indiana are outnumbered more than two to one, [I love that.]
Based on several reports, there are more and more every passing day.
Why are the excess $$’s are held by a state? Don’t they belong to the taxpayers?
The state (& by extension the taxpayer) saves money in the long run by saving a surplus to invest in capital projects, reducing the financing cost of borrowing to fund such investments. The net effect is lower overall spending and more money retained by the taxpayer.
I don’t understand.
I was banned for a week for using the euphemism “he called a spade a spade” and here an entire thread is allowed to stay even though it uses the obvious racist term of a budget being in the black.
Why am I being disrespected?
Actually, Mitch Daniels is trying to do just that with the Automatic Taxpayer Refund. Unfortunately, we have some RINOs in the state Senate that think the money belongs to them.
When the State reserves reach 10%+ of the budget, any extra is sent back to the taxpayers. We are around 9% right now.
I'm not sure where the ATR is at the moment but hopefully they won't give up on it.
In Indiana, any retained surplus in excess of (I think) 10% of the State’s annual budget must be returned as tax refunds. Indiana is presently sitting on about 9.1%; which, of course means that with the Republicans controlling the Governor’s office and both houses of the legislature (for the first time in a generation) There should be a nice refund check in the mail prior to next year’s election.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.