Joe Doakes from Como Park writes:
Governor Dayton wants another $2 billion, supposedly paid for by the richest 2%.
Nonsense, never happen.
The rich are rich, they’re not stupid. They won’t voluntarily hand over an extra $2 billion – they’ll hire tax lawyers and CPAs to hide their money. Worst case, the rich will move out of state and take their businesses with them.
How many of those rich people live within easy driving distance of Wisconsin, with its tax-cutting administration?
So if the Governor gets his way there won’t be any extra tax revenue but we already will have spent the money. How will we pay for it?
If the rich won’t pay, and the poor can’t pay, who will pay? You know who.
That’s been the fact all along; since taxes on “the rich” never generate what the politicians think they will, but spending always meets projections, the taxes will inevitably filter down to the middle class.
Doakes:
There are 5 million people in Minnesota. There are about 2 million tax returns filed but nearly half of them pay no tax at all (they only file to get a refund) and of the rest, a bunch are “married filing jointly” in which there basically is one earner. There are probably 1 million actual middle-class taxpayers in Minnesota.
$2 billion is 2,000 million. That’s two thousand dollars per taxpayer. Your taxes will go up $2,000 per year, call it $160 per month or $40 per week. A dollar an hour more taxes.
Mark Dayton shut down the entire state government, holding everyone hostage, for a dollar-an-hour pay cut.
But let’s be honest; if Dayton gets his way, this is just the beginning. The auto-pilot increases will continue; it’ll be another six billion dollar “deficit” in 2013; the “rich” will have been tapped out (or left); there’s another buck or two or three an hour.
What’s that you say, it’s not a pay cut? Hey, if your paycheck is smaller by a dollar-an-hour, does it matter whether your boss cut your pay or the government took more taxes? Either way, you’re skipping one tankful of gas, skipping one restaurant meal with your family, skipping one grocery shopping trip, skipping $40 every week for the rest of your life.
Maybe the Governor truly believes we’ll be happy to pay for a better Minnesota. Maybe he thinks his union buddies are clamoring for a pay cut. “Me! Me! Pick me! I want my taxes raised. I want less money in my pocket. Raise my taxes, please!” Personally, I have not heard one single Minnesotan demanding to pay more in taxes out of their own pockets. Raise taxes on other people – sure; but not on me. It’s easy to spend other people’s money. But when it’s your own? Not so much.
But that, of course, has been behind the DFL’s house of political cards for the past forty years – forcing other people to pay for your goodies.
The Governor is holding hostage every citizen in this state, until we accept a dollar-an-hour pay cut.
A dollar-an-hour pay cut.
On top of the cut Obama’s going to give you.
How many of you are “happy to pay?”
What ever happened to the EBT card scandel? You remember, KSTP TV looked at where that money was being spent. A lot at liquor stores in Chicago. Some tropical resorts. How come that issue died out? Before we raise taxes, I want to know why fraud is allowed in current spending.
“Happy to have someone else pay for me” is what taxing the top 2% of income tax payer is all about. Sure, it won’t work, but it’s not designed to fool smart people.
I’m already “skipping” a shitload of things I need to get done, because I can’t afford to do them. And I don’t have a spare Renoir to sell.
Mark Dayton can kiss my ass.
I did some “napkin math” and came up with around 70,000 people with one-million MINNESOTA TAXABLE INCOME needed to generate $2 billion dollars new revenue with a 2% higher top end MN income tax. Fed tax, charity and muni bonds are all exempt from MN income tax.
Perhaps someone could crunch the numbers better.
I choose to steal what you chose to show
And you know I will not apologize
You’re mine for the taking
I’m making a career of evil
The DFL’s ethos summed up.
How many multi-millionaire governors live a short driving distance from Wisconsin, but hide their trust fund in low-tax South Dakota? He knows the rich won’t pay the increase, because they are his buddies!
Maybe we should propose, yes, a 4th bracket, but make all Dayton’s extra spending payable upon receipt of that projected extra revenue. Meanwhile, the fighting among all the liberal groups – education, welfare, unions, LGA – finally goes public.
nerbert inspired me to do this, sing this (slightly modified) to the tune of Sympathy for the Devil…
Please allow me to introduce myself
Im a man of wealth and taste
Ive been around for a long, long year
Stole many a mans soul and faith
And I was round when Paul Wellstone
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that the pilot
Crashed the plane and sealed his fate
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game
I stuck around Washington DC
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the politicians that got in my way
many screamed in vain
I rode a tank
Held a generals rank
When the shock and awe raged
And the bodies stank
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
Ah, what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah
I watched with glee
While your UN Ambassadors
Fought for five decades
For the countries they made
I shouted out,
Who killed the kennedys?
When after all
It was you and me or maybe just fate?
Let me please introduce myself
Im a man of wealth and taste
And I laid traps for the Pakistan army
Who get killed before they reached Bombay
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, baby
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But what’s confusing you
Is just the nature of my game
Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me lucifer
Cause Im in need of some restraint
So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I’ll lay your soul to waste, um yeah
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, um yeah
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, um mean it, get down
Woo, who
Oh yeah, get on down
Oh yeah
Oh yeah!
Tell me baby, what’s my name
Tell me honey, can ya guess my name
Tell me baby, what’s my name
I tell you one time, you’re to blame
Ooo, who
Ooo, who
Ooo, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Oh, yeah
What’s me name
Tell me, baby, what’s my name
Tell me, sweetie, what’s my name
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Oh, yeah