This week, the Commonwealth rewards her citizens for getting prepared for hurricane (or derecho… or tornado… ) season by allowing us to purchase the preparatory supplies for the impending storms sales-tax-free. (Reminiscent of the days when I used to run a restaurant and kids would ask for a raise based on their accomplishment of ‘being on time everyday.’)
That said, as a warning, what is about to follow, if you read in haste (or are a McAuliffe campaign adviser) would have you accusing me of being against the “tax holiday.” Not the case, but what I AM against is the disingenuous way all governments collect their “consent” (taxes) from the governed. Income, sales, gas, cigarette, car, property, it’s the classic death by a million-billion paper cuts.
For example, given figures from the Virginia budget, the Old Dominion collected $19 Billion of income taxes and an additional $6 Billion in sales taxes totaling $25 Billion JUST from those two sources. Estimating 5 million Virginians in the workforce (removing those under 18 and over 65 in Census), that’s $5,000 each or $417 per month that we paid to the Government for the services that they rendered. What do you think the reaction would be to getting one of THOSE in the mail every month?
If we can do single-stream recycling, why do we find it so difficult to embrace single-stream taxation? If my cable/internet/cell phone company can do it, I presume that the Virgina Department of Taxation can. How can we expect to have an honest relationship with the Government we are supposed to be giving our consent to if we don’t even realize how much they ask for?
Flat Tax (my fav), Fair Tax, VAT/tariff only (Jefferson’s fav) we can debate the “how.” But we really need to reform our taxation so that we are all keenly aware of what we contribute so then we can fairly discuss the “for what?” Right now, the Government is very much like the teenager that asks Dad for money to go to the mall and then hits up mom for the same thing. Maybe they need to be grounded.
