For example, if you tax cigarettes here, I'll buy them there, pinheaded twits.
If you raise the level of confiscatory sales tax, the voluntary flow of money from the citizen's pocket to the computerized cash register lowers dramatically. The net impact of higher rates of tax is often lower tax revenue.
You cannot multiply 'S' sales by 't' tax rate, then change 't', without impacting 'S'. Call it bureaucratic blowback.
The mainstay of the Liberal party is insufficiently intellectually-gifted to comprehend basic economics.
My favorite example--wish I could remember the specifics:
A state government was charging a 50% excise tax on widgets; widget sales were something like $100,000/year, so the tax brought in $50,000. Someone in the legislature pushed through a tax reduction to 10%, over protests that the state couldn't afford it--it would cost $40,000.
Well, after the tax was cut, widget sales soared tenfold, to $1,000,000/year. Tax revenues increased as well, to $100,000. Did that appease the naysayers? Nope.
Instead, they complained that the tax cut was costing the state even more than they'd expected, to the tune of $400,000, and needed to be rolled back up.