The Way We Tax; A 50-State Report (interesting site)

Governing.com ^ | February 2003 | KATHERINE BARRETT & RICHARD GREENE,

[mykdsmom]

Check out what they have to say about NC on this site.

MKM

[jdege]

Am I wrong in reading into all of this a sense that they believe that the higher the tax revenues, the better?

[jigsaw]

Really interesting stuff at the full site. Mykdsmom, many thanks for posting this!

[GailA]

Already posted here: THREAD #1

There is also an article on TN being among the WORST in tax structure in the Nation...surprise NO INCOME TAX. TX and NV are also sited as being worst in nation..again surprise NO IT.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

What an incredibly biased site!

Describing PA's flat income tax: "In order to reduce the regressivity of the income tax ..."

Our income tax isn't regressive! It's a flat 2.8% on all income with no deductions or exemptions. There is a state program which refunds some or all of this tax to those of lesser means, but none of this makes the tax regressive.

[Constitution Day]

Thanks for the ping, but you forgot the barf alert.
The site seems to be tailor-made for pro-tax policy wonks and other big government apologists.

Am I wrong? I've never seen it before.

[Henrietta]

There could be a political aspect to the ranking. Perhaps those doing the ranking are in favor of the wealth-distribution aspects of an income tax.

[Henrietta]

Further to my last post, go to the site and compare Oregon and Nevada. Oregon has an out of control spending problem, and they want to raise taxes there, yet it is highly ranked as "fair." Of course, if you like screwing the rich, then a graduated 9% income tax is "fair."

Nevada has property taxes and a sales tax, and yet is ranked "unfair." I can't think of a more fair way to tax people than a consumption-based tax like the sales tax.

[mykdsmom]

Well I found the article in the N & O and followed the link, 'nuff said.

Taxes are our friends, right? ; )

I did find it rather interesting in reading the ratings, tax percentages that some of the other states have though. I've not read all of it but bookmarked it for later.

Basically NC has a TON of hidden taxes called "fees", I think they did say this in the article however.

And don't even get me started on the lottery.

MKM

[jayef]

Exactly my observation. Notice that the only state with a 4 star rating for fairness to taxpayers (Hawaii) happens to be the state that ranks first in revenues as a percent of income and second in per capita revenues. The message seems clear enough.

[mykdsmom]

I did a search, really. Wonder why it didn't come up?

MKM

[GailA]

I cut and paste the title in that way there is no typos..I'm good at typos.

The up shot of this is that this is a GOVERNMENT mag about GOVERNMENT taxation.

It's as unbiased as the WP, NYT, ABC, CNN, CBS, PBS, NPR etc.

We have a NEW Tax Study Commission to study our tax structure over the next 2 years...guess what? It's LOADED with ALL PRO-Income Tax people. All white men to boot.

[mykdsmom]

I cut and paste the title in that way there is no typos

I cut and paste everything too, oh well. FR was messing up big time last night, could have been a glitch in the system I guess.

MKM

[Overtaxed]

. Will citizens likely sit still as they lose services they think are important?

What services would those be? More at Four? PhD at Three? Global Transpork?

[Question_Assumptions]

Bump for later.

[Constitution Day]

Will citizens likely sit still as they lose services they think are important?

How about some GRAMMAR lessons for our Guvnah?!?

"NC Gov Mike Easley (D): "Four-year-olds don't have but one chance to be 4."

As someone said on that thread: "I wonder if he has a coat that says "Gov" on the back?"

[Overtaxed]

Let him pay for his own grammar lessons.

[GailA]

The difference was this ; Your article contains the ; where mine didn't.