If you ask a Mainer about taxes, you’re liable to get an earful: Mainers have one of the highest tax burdens in the nation. Nonetheless, on election day, Maine voters turned down proposals to cut taxes.
In a slow economy, Maine voters were leery of a proposal that would result in cuts in services. The controversial ballot issue, Question 4, asked voters if they wanted to limit future increases in state and local government spending and taxes to the rate of inflation plus population growth. The measure was known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights campaign, or TABOR. Those opposed to the measure referred to it as “TABOR II” since a similar proposal was turned down in 2006.
Those in support of TABOR claimed that the bill would put more money back in taxpayer’s pockets. Critics wondered what the actual result of would be, as many state and local services were already facing cuts. Public schools are already operating under frozen budgets.
Voters also rejected a proposal to cut excise taxes on some vehicles and exempt hybrid and fuel-efficient vehicles from sales tax. Measures to encourage the purchase of cleaner cars are popular in states like Colorado but critics feared that tax cuts would have to be made up somewhere else. In that way, it wasn’t so much a tax cut as a shift in taxation.
While tax measures on the ballots were overshadowed by publicity over questions about making medical marijuana more available (yes) and gay marriage legal (no), the tax votes may be indicative of the mood of the nation on the eve of a huge election year… Only time will tell.
Despite three campaign appearances by President Obama, Governor John Corzine lost his gubernatorial seat in New Jersey to GOP challenger Chris Christie last night. Exit polls showed that the top two concerns for New Jersey voters were the economy and the state’s high property taxes.
How high are those property taxes? For the year 2008, New Jersey holds the distinction of the state with both the highest property taxes per capita and the worst business tax climate in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation (note: report will download as a pdf). New Jersey residents also ranked highest in the nation last year with respect to state and local taxes as a percentage of income. New Jersey taxpayers paid a whopping 11.8% of income in state and local taxes, more than 2% above the national average.
Of course, this is nothing new for New Jersey. Residents have generally put up with higher taxes because of what they thought it bought them: some of the best schools in the country, for example. But in the midst of a bad economy, that has changed. New Jersey residents increasingly believe that higher taxes buy them very little (ask Robert Flach) except possibly more corruption.
Governor (for now) John Corzine became the first New Jersey governor to lose a re-election bid since 1993, when then Governor Jim Florio lost to an up and coming GOP challenger Christie Todd Whitman. Whitman, who made cutting taxes a priority in her campaign, later bit at an offer by President Bush clearly intended to knock her out of the public eye and into obscurity.
So what does that mean for New Jersey residents? Luckily for them, they can only go down from here.
Times are tough in Chicago. You can only tax the citizenry so much – and Chicago already shares the distinction of being one of the most taxed cities in America.
The solution? Enforcement. No big surprise there.
But enforcement costs money. What if you could get your enforcement for free? What if… you could convince taxpayers to rat each other out? Brilliant. And so, Chicago Mayor Daley has introduced a “Tax Whistleblower Program” for 2010.
The program would reward taxpayers who turn in those with unpaid business taxes. Taxpayers who successfully bring in money to the city would receive a percentage as blood money bounty.
A good way to destroy the competition, perhaps? The Revenue Department is counting on it. Ed Walsh, a Revenue spokesperson says: “It would probably be … a business knowing that a competitor is not remitting a tax. An employee [of the tax-dodging business] could know that, too. Typically, you need to provide some type of incentive.”
Nice.
This way, all businesses in Chicago could live in fear of their competition – and their neighbors. But a little fear is healthy, right?
Who knows if other cities will follow suit? I’m setting up my telescope, just in case…
When Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the electric sports car Tesla Roadster, he had plenty to say. Notably, he complained about the price, which was at the time of filming in the UK, £92,000 (about $150,962.40 US). Lucky for all of you prospective Tesla Roadster buyers, the price has dropped to a mere $109,000. And if you moved to Colorado, you could get your hands on it for a mere fraction of the price.
Colorado? Yeah, you read that right. Colorado is offering a 38% tax credit on the Roadster through the end of the year. That brings the total cost of the Roadster to about $65,000.
It’s not just the Tesla that can take advantage of the credit. It applies to your run of the mill Prius, too. In fact, Colorado is ahead of the pack when it comes to providing tax breaks for hybrid and zero-emission vehicles. The state has been doing it for years.
But it’s the size of the Tesla refund that is attracting attention.
Bowing to pressure from overextended taxpayers, state lawmakers passed a bill which would cap such refunds at $6,000. The bill, however, doesn’t take effect until next year. That means that there’s still plenty of time to take advantage of the refund this year.
Though state lawmakers didn’t expect to see more than 10 Tesla refunds, one Tesla dealership has reported selling six cars this week alone. That’s about $252,000 in refunds in one week. That’s not a pace that taxpayers are happy to see when faced with a $320 million deficit in the state budget.
Of course, there are some restrictions on the refund. For one, to qualify, the vehicle must be titled and registered in Colorado. And the credit is only available in the year that the car was purchased.
However, since it’s a tax credit (and not a flat out dollars back refund), there is a chance that the amount of the credit could exceed a taxpayer’s net tax liability for the year. If that happens, any excess credit may be carried forward and claimed on future year returns for up to five years.
So, it may not turn out be the kind of hit that taxpayers fear. That still doesn’t make taxpayers feel better about what’s perceived as an irresponsible tax policy. The amount of the refund alone, it has been noted, is more than many taxpayers will pay for the total cost of their car. In a tight economy, this isn’t the kind of thing that sits well with many folks.
What do you think? Fair game or bad policy?
And if you’re interested, you can watch the controversial “Top Gear” review of the Tesla Roadster here:
(In case you missed the scandal, the BBC later admitted that the scene of the car being pushed into the garage was not a result of the alleged 55 mile fail.)
Stephanie Dean and Stefani Hovarter (yeah, I know!) have filed a lawsuit against Feed The Children for wrongful dismissal. Dean and Hovarter claim that they were fired after pointing out to the charity that more than $1 million was owed to the State of Oklahoma.
The tax allegedly owed is in the form of use [...]
Philadelphia is a town known for its scrappy sports teams and its passionate fans. We’ve collectively cheered our world champion Phillies and wrung our hands over last minute Eagles’ losses. We’ve booed the drafting of Donovan McNabb, cheered Brad Lidge, mourned our beloved Harry Kalas and thrown snowballs at Santa. We’ve stood [...]
Philadelphia joined a host of other cities and towns – as well as states – across the nation hanging up “closed” signs on government funded institutions. Just months after Chicago ordered non-unionized employees to take unpaid furloughs and Hawaii warned of state employee furloughs, signs on Philadelphia public libraries and recreation centers warned [...]
In just a little under three hours, the Philadelphia Eagles will hit the field for the third of their four pre-season games. So far, they’ve given their fans nothing to cheer about. They have, however, given them plenty to talk about – not the least of which is the signing of former bad [...]
I previously blogged that Seattle was contemplating a tax on plastic bags which managed to garner a decent amount of support. Clearly, the initial support wasn’t enough.
Seattle voters firmly rejected the measure in a vote this month. The bill, had it passed, would have made Seattle the first city to tax both plastic [...]
Welcome to my seventh in a series on state taxes! For information about what I’m trying to do, read my introductory bit. Next on the agenda, Connecticut (home of the Connecticut Employment Lawyer Blog).
CONNECTICUT
Population: 3,501,252 (29th)
Capital: Hartford
Largest City: Bridgeport
Gross Domestic Product: $204 billion
GDP per capita: $54,117 (1st!)
2008 election winner: Barack Obama
web site: http://www.ct.gov/
Income Tax
Connecticut [...]
