The
Dispatch Newsletter
Misleading
Polls
Before
the election last March, some polls indicated that a majority of the public
would not mind taxes being increased in order to balance the State of
But
some people never learn. A poll that was published in the April 14, 2004 Daily
News Business section indicated that by nearly a 2-1 margin, Americans prefer
balancing the nation’s budget over tax cuts. But that becomes more
understandable when you realize that the bottom 50% pay less than 4% of
federal personal income tax, and the bottom 75% pay only 16.5% of the federal
personal income tax. Considering only that tax, it’s no wonder people
don’t care much about having their income tax cut. Particularly after the
recent federal tax cuts, there’s not much of it left to be cut. They fail to
see how tax rate cuts benefit the economy. Without President Bush’s tax
cuts, the combination of the recession, which started in 2000, and the
Opponents of the recent tax cuts prove the more proportionate benefit lower income workers are receiving from those tax cuts. Since they cannot prove otherwise, they now try to combine federal, state, and local taxes into one amount, complaining that lower income people pay a higher percentage of their income on that combination than higher income taxpayers. It would be very interesting to see how that was calculated. Food, from grocery stores, and drugs are exempt from sales tax. Property tax might be a lower percent of affluent taxpayers’ income than for lower income homeowners. But residential tenants do not pay property tax. Like other operating costs, property tax does nothing to determine the amount of rent. Only supply and demand (and government meddling) do that. It’s up to the public to complain about excess taxes and regulations.
Attempts
of some politicians to increase taxes on the wealthy by increasing taxes on
their consumption backfire disastrously. When excise taxes on yachts were
increased, sales plummeted and over 25,000 boat building employees lost their
jobs. Over regulation of health care and workers compensation in
It’s tragic that many people do not care enough to learn about the issues and vote. By getting actively involved in our UCNH Government Affairs Committee we show the elected officials that certain issues are important to us, and we will persistently remind them. If you do not like the Los Angeles Gross Receipts Tax, please call and write your City Council member about it, and join our committee. Apathy costs too much.
Our
success in resolving issues is dependent on the effort and time we invest.
Help your business and community by joining the Government Affairs Committee.
Representatives of our elected officials regularly attend the Government
Affairs meetings to hear what we have to say. We meet at the Chamber of
Commerce office (
Vic Viereck, Chairman
Government Affairs Committee