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Friday, March 20, 2009

Hey, why not make all taxes temporary?

Ray Long and Ashley Rueff report this morning on the movement afoot to make the proposed state income tax rate hike temporary. Gov. Quinn is opposed.

But why not? Require the next General Assembly and, if there's a change, the next governor to re-ratify and re-impose the new higher rate. If it's true, as some say, that legislative leaders want Quinn to do the dirty, unpopular work of raising taxes so he can take the political fall, then a temporary tax would, in effect, knock the ball back into their court, where it belongs.

Heck, do it with all our tax rates: Force elected officials to take ownership and bear the responsibilty.



But doesn't this mean that no state agency will ever be able to effectively plan ahead again, since they wouldn't be able to know how much money would be available?

Just like the tollways were supposed to be temporary.

What happens when all of our combined taxes exceed 100%?

To Joseph Finn: That's quite a leap to assume that are doing planning to begin with. Or even can the way Illinois govt is currently run.

What would be far better than making all taxes "temporary" would be a constitutional requirement that taxes cannot rise by more than x.yy percent from one year to the next.

Because, the productivity of businesses, families and individuals depends on the ability to make long-range financial plans, yet such planning becomes difficult to impossible if tax rates and taxible items are constantly changing at the whim of politicians' perception of short-term political gain.

And, yes, the word "temporary" was in quotes because no one believes it-- "temporary" is forever and always a cheap ploy to sell the next tax increase-- "it's just temporary." But, it (almost) never is.

@Albigensian -- If I remember correctly, that sort of constitutional restriction on tax increases is what got California in trouble a few years ago.

It also is basically laziness on the part of the voters. Rather than have to pay attention and decide if elected officials are managing the state's finances responsibly, they set a limit based on whatever today's circumstances are and assume that limit will always be appropriate.

Better would be something like property taxes, where each department or recipient of tax monies would be identified, the amount they're getting listed and an annual vote taken on whether they should get an increase (capped at x%, hold steady, decrease, or be eliminated). Let's see what each of these programs are costing us and let the voters decide if they're worthwhile. Should be simple in this computer age. Trouble with the property tax listing of taxing bodies is that nothing can be done; it's always up up up more more more. We need a mechanism to let the voters say "enough". We need to allow the voters to over-rule an out-of-control Congress worried only about special interests and what they may contribute to keeping them in office.

I like this idea a lot as it would increase government accountability to the voters. The legislature and governor would have to take ownership of the tax rate each year. The best result might be a reduction in spending when they are forced to admit that they aren't taking in enough money to pay for all of the programs that they are trying to fund.

I'm baffled by the idea that Quinn feels that he has to raise taxes. There is so much wasteful spending out there that he could easily lower taxes and still avoid a deficit. Government is too involved in regulation, social services, and other wasteful activities. Temporary taxation could be a step in the right direction in putting government back in its rightful place.

umm....all taxes are temporary.

Any future legislative session can undo a previous legislative session's actions, including tax rate increases and decreases.

Today's GA can not pass a law that ties the hands of the General Assembly in 50 years. An action by today's GA can still be in existence in 50 years, but that's a different story.

The Constitution itself is temporary. We've changed it 27 times, most recently in 1992 (ratifying an amendment that was proposed in 1789(!) - had it been ratified then, the Bill of Rights would include 11 amendments). We even unamended the constitution (prohibition).

All laws are temporary. Theoretically, I would imagine that we could even pass a law legalizing homicide.

Requiring that a law is reauthorized annually is a different thing altogether. Thats kind of what local governments do with property taxes. They pass a levy and an appropriations ordinance annually, effectively reauthorizing the previous year's property tax, plus any increases.

I thought all of you libs LOVED taxes....why else vote a Democrat in to office? Tax the rich, feed the poor, right? You cute Robin Hoods, you. Yeah, right, until it hits YOUR pocket book....hypocrites!!!!

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