After ranting in the previous post about the local Gannet paper, the Tennessean, I felt inspired to dig out and address a maddening newspaper article that's been buried on my desk since May 20. It's about taxes. This state has the most regressive tax system in the country.
Tennessee has the nation's highest average sales tax at nearly 10%. Tennessee is one of only a handful of states that still tax groceries.
In other words, poor people in this state have less money to spend on essentials such as food, medicine and rent, while affluent folks have more to spend on nonessentials such as boats, digital cameras and trips to the Bahamas.
Sounds like Tennessee to me.
With Red Media on the job, there's little hope of that changing in the foreseeable future.
Picture a front-page, headline story, entitled: Give taxpayers back $27M, some say
Some say? Now who might some be?
You guessed it, some are right-wingers who were absent from Kindergarten that day the teacher talked about sharing.
The opening lines of this news story:
More tax collections than expected - An extra $272 million - are pouring into Tennessee's coffers.
How much of a refund can you expect back?
Not a dime. Gov. Phil Bredesen and legislative leaders already have plans for the cash.
"Unfortunately, they're treating this like it's a pinata; whoever comes along can take a whack at it and get their money," said Ben Cunningham of Tennessee Tax Revolt, a group that lobbies for less government spending. "It burns a hole in their pocket. They spend it right up."
Yeah, sometimes they spend it on health care for the elderly, disabled, sick and needy. One reason we have all that extra money is because the Governor has chosen to make severe cuts to nonessentials such as life-saving health care.
But the entire story reads like it was written by Cunningham, founder of Tennessee Tax Revolt.
Of course our lawmakers can't be trusted to spend money appropriately. The job pays $16,500 a year, for gawd's sake. What kind of legislators did we expect to attract with a salary so pitiful? Some of them can barely read and write. Whenever the difficult and complex topics of the day are discussed, they attempt to cover their ignorance by citing 2000 year old sources.
Apparently, this state cannot afford qualified lawmakers, and the lawmakers we have sure don't want to implement a tax reform that would possibly put them out of a job. (Our Governor is too embarrased to take money from the dirt-poor state, so he does not take a salary.) With tax reform, the state would be able raise legislators' ridiculous wages and greatly increase the chances of attracting qualified candidates.
But back to the unfair and unbalanced news story. It tells two sides - the government's side and the right wingers' side. Sources cited include our socially conservative governor, TN Tax Revolt and the conservative no-think tank - which bills itself as a "free-market think-tank" - Tennessee Center for Policy Research.
"Free-market" is, of course, code for: it's every woman, man, and child for her/himself; it's a dog eat dog world; no sharing allowed; get used to it, you commie pinkos.
more from the news/propaganda story:
Meanwhile, Cunningham, Johnson and others are still pushing for a "taxpayer bill of rights." What it would do, in essence, is return excess tax money to taxpayers by writing into the state constitution a cap on government spending based on the previous year's budget, with increases for inflation and population growth. When the state has a surplus, taxpayers get it back in the form of individual checks or a yearlong reduction in the state sales tax the next year.Because Tennessee likes having an education system that compares only to Mississippi, damnit, and we're going to keep it that way.
The organization that should have been cited: Tennesseans for Fair Taxation.
There is nothing odd about this particular story. Citing organizations on the Right and ignoring ones on the Left is common practice at the Tennessean.
End of rant.
But check out the Tax Reform Calculator at Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, where you can find out how much your family would pay if Tennessee lawmakers had enough moral fortitude to implement a tax system that was fair.
