Voters are too lazy to educate themselves. Here in Virginia, several years ago, Mary Sue Terry was poised to become our next governor. She worked hard, and had worked her way up through several state offices, and had a commanding lead over Jim Gilmore. Virginia is, unfortunately, a “Dillon Rule” state, which means that localities cannot initiate a tax unless the state legislature allows it. As a result, we have a lot of local taxes that have little merit other than bringing in tax dollars.
One of them is a personal property tax, which is a tax on your boat, car, and other big-ticket items. Commonly called the “car tax”, it was universally reviled, since you had to pay it every year. It went down every year, but no one wants to pay the same tax over and over. I drive a car that’s almost 50 years old, so my tax was around $6. per year. Now, if you have a new Suburban Assault Vehicle so popular with today’s “thrifty” Americans, this could be several thousand when the car is new.
Jim Gilmore (see if you can guess which party he represented) came up with an idea: the state will pay the localities instead of the taxpayer. And he put out campaign signs everywhere stating “No Car Tax”.
Of course, any thinking person has to wonder, "Where would the state get the money to pay the localities?’ Obvious answer: the taxpayers. So the plan was for the state to take money from the taxpayer, (take a cut for itself,) and distribute the money to the localities. This was instead of taking the money from the taxpayer and sending it directly to the localities. Essentially, he added a middle man, and that’s all.
To help you figure out which political party he represented, he also had this “phased in” whereby those with the biggest tax bill (the most expensive cars on the road) would get the “tax cut” first, and us peons driving older, less valuable cars could get our “relief” later.
He won in a landslide. Stupid voters. Almost bankrupted the state, and made the localities angry with the way it was divided up. The state treasury got so messed up that we almost lost our credit rating, and he left office without allowing passage of a budget. We still haven’t really recovered, and each time someone wants to get rid of this shell game, Republicans (aw, I gave it away) called it a “tax increase”.
By the bye, Mr. Gilmore was in it for the White House. He made it to the head of the Republican National Committee, and looked like a shoe-in for the nomination: he hates gay people and abortions, he’s white and middle-aged, and he “cut taxes” without regard for consequences. Two things fortunately derailed him: one was he was even too abrasive for his own party. The other was he was “allegedly” engaged in an affair with a married woman, to whose campaign for House of Delegates he donated a quarter million, while his wife just quietly disappeared. And she lost her seat soon after.
Does this make us more willing to do our homework? Ask Mr. Lugar.
Voters are too lazy to educate themselves. Here in Virginia, several years ago, Mary Sue Terry was poised to become our next governor. She worked hard, and had worked her way up through several state offices, and had a commanding lead over Jim Gilmore. Virginia is, unfortunately, a “Dillon Rule” state, which means that localities cannot initiate a tax unless the state legislature allows it. As a result, we have a lot of local taxes that have little merit other than bringing in tax dollars.
One of them is a personal property tax, which is a tax on your boat, car, and other big-ticket items. Commonly called the “car tax”, it was universally reviled, since you had to pay it every year. It went down every year, but no one wants to pay the same tax over and over. I drive a car that’s almost 50 years old, so my tax was around $6. per year. Now, if you have a new Suburban Assault Vehicle so popular with today’s “thrifty” Americans, this could be several thousand when the car is new.
Jim Gilmore (see if you can guess which party he represented) came up with an idea: the state will pay the localities instead of the taxpayer. And he put out campaign signs everywhere stating “No Car Tax”.
Of course, any thinking person has to wonder, "Where would the state get the money to pay the localities?’ Obvious answer: the taxpayers. So the plan was for the state to take money from the taxpayer, (take a cut for itself,) and distribute the money to the localities. This was instead of taking the money from the taxpayer and sending it directly to the localities. Essentially, he added a middle man, and that’s all.
To help you figure out which political party he represented, he also had this “phased in” whereby those with the biggest tax bill (the most expensive cars on the road) would get the “tax cut” first, and us peons driving older, less valuable cars could get our “relief” later.
He won in a landslide. Stupid voters. Almost bankrupted the state, and made the localities angry with the way it was divided up. The state treasury got so messed up that we almost lost our credit rating, and he left office without allowing passage of a budget. We still haven’t really recovered, and each time someone wants to get rid of this shell game, Republicans (aw, I gave it away) called it a “tax increase”.
By the bye, Mr. Gilmore was in it for the White House. He made it to the head of the Republican National Committee, and looked like a shoe-in for the nomination: he hates gay people and abortions, he’s white and middle-aged, and he “cut taxes” without regard for consequences. Two things fortunately derailed him: one was he was even too abrasive for his own party. The other was he was “allegedly” engaged in an affair with a married woman, to whose campaign for House of Delegates he donated a quarter million, while his wife just quietly disappeared. And she lost her seat soon after.
Does this make us more willing to do our homework? Ask Mr. Lugar.