Sales Tax going up 3/4c!

DrBoost wrote: the commercials are over.

I'm Knurled and I approve this message.

DrBoost wrote: 6% here in MI. The only good thing about 10% is that it's easy to figure out in your head real quick. Here, I gotta to 10%, cut that in half and add a little more back. But I went to Detroit schools so I got an excuse. And yes, please keep the politics out of this. It's over, this guy won, that guy didn't, the commercials are over.

that is the good part

TN is 9.25%

Tx is 8.25%, but we have no state income tax

I think it's 8.517% right now, or right around that. We have another 5%-ish in state income tax.

Zomby Woof wrote:

Cone_Junky wrote: I wasn't for the tax increase, but apparently more of us were, so that's what we get.

I don't get that. We have the same problem up here. When polled, the majority of people almost always say that they're willing to pay more tax. WTF is wrong with these people?

To be honest, as far as I can see most people are fine with saying they are willing to pay more taxes as long as the majority of the increase gets pushed onto someone else(I don't drink/smoke/eat cheese, so go ahead and raise the tax on booze/smokes/dairy) or until it's actually time for them to pay more in taxes.

Yeah, well, you know, that just, like, your opinion, man.

nicksta43 wrote: TN is 9.25%

You guys don't have any state income tax, though, do you? Pretty sure there wasn't any when I lived there, but that was an age ago.

Our sales tax is really low here in Colorado, but it's going to be a lot higher on recreational marijuana. ;)

Vermont is 6-7% depending on where and for what. We actually have a tax called the "Bagel Tax."

In reply to fast_eddie_72:

No state income tax. It was a little odd coming from Ohio where we paid the state, city where we reside and city where we work. But food was not taxed. It was a shock to see how expensive milk was down here.

In Nevada, sales tax varies by county. Clark County (where Las Vegas is) is at 8.1%. But there is no state income tax, and property taxes are very very low.

Why?

Someone else pays the taxes.

Who?

Visitors! They pay:

Airport tax

Hotel tax

Live entertainment tax

Gambling tax, etc etc.

Thanks, tourists!

This sort of thing in CA is a result of Prop 13. We Californians seriously need to repeal it, and other states should not follow our example in passing similar laws. That stupid law is seriously hurting our state. (For those not from CA, it is a voter approved proposition that basically caps assessed values for property taxes and requires a 2/3 majority to pass any increase in tax rates. Because it is a Proposition, the legislature can not overturn or amend it.)

When local governments can't collect as much property taxes, they need to turn to other sources, primarily sales tax.

If it takes fewer votes to approve a budget than to raise revenue to pay for the budget, the result will be insufficient funding for what passes.

I also suspect it artificially raises home prices because the lower tax rate from staying in the same house means you'll be discouraged from selling it unless the price is really worth it.

16vCorey wrote:

yamaha wrote: I think Indiana is either 7 or 8%,.......no complaints about it.

Indiana is 7% with an extra 1% at restaurants.

It is everywhere but the counties around Indy. Here it is 9% at restaurants to help pay for the colts shiny new stadium.

Also there is no tax on groceries.

Grizz wrote:

Zomby Woof wrote:

Cone_Junky wrote: I wasn't for the tax increase, but apparently more of us were, so that's what we get.

I don't get that. We have the same problem up here. When polled, the majority of people almost always say that they're willing to pay more tax. WTF is wrong with these people?

To be honest, as far as I can see most people are fine with saying they are willing to pay more taxes as long as the majority of the increase gets pushed onto someone else(I don't drink/smoke/eat cheese, so go ahead and raise the tax on booze/smokes/dairy) or until it's actually time for them to pay more in taxes.

i'd have no problem paying more in taxes if i knew the money wasn't being wasted..

but as it sits now, government at every level are masters of wasting money on stupid things to buy votes in the next elections, so i want to pay as little as possible.

In reply to Beer Baron:

Sorry, need to interject here. Prop 13 is not the problem. CA does not have a revenue issue, we have a spending issue. We pay huge amounts in taxes, and the legislature just keeps spending more and more. They are like a stupid 18 year old with a credit card. It is insane that the Dems have supermajority as well. THAT should be illegal. It completely circumvents checks and balances. CA is going down hard soon. I have lived here my whole life and am DYING to get out before the state implodes. It WILL happen, it is only a matter of time. Of course, I can't leave, because my house is 40% underwater, amongst other things, so I am basically screwed.

Great, now I'm in a crappy mood.

In reply to mguar:

You are a dunderhead for already stooping to the lows of citing welfare for which you hope to reinforce your viewpoint of inciting some good ole' class envy bullchit.

If I want to buy votes, I'm riding my pork barrel pig all the way with a new road paving project, a new visitor's center, or some money bilking project studying the habitat of the snow spotted white grey goose.

It isn't always welfare. So STFU.

In reply to mguar:

Sorry, I don't see how that refutes the fact that the state takes in tons of money but can't stop spending. It would be a problem if there was no other source of income, but that is simply not the case. The amount of money spent on stupid projects (60 billion high-speed train to no-where is a good example) is astronomical. The legislature needs to be ousted, all of them. Include the governor in that too.

Oh, hey, the shiny happy person forum is a couple doors down. Run on down and we'll meet y'all there to tell you why we're right and you're wrong. ;-)

Margie

mguar wrote: In reply to novaderrik: It seems like every body has a different opinion on what is wasted. Some people think that any money spent on defense is good while others consider it not only a waste but wrong.. As for buying votes, that isn't logical.. Welfare which is what I suspect is being alluded to is a lousy return. Less than 22% of welfare recipients actually vote.. Probably because living on welfare is such a miserable existence more than 1/2 would vote republican. Considering that while 15% of the population lives below the poverty level the poor are historically low turnout of voters.. So no welfare doesn't buy votes.. However corporate welfare is common and instead of $257 a month for welfare it's tens of millions if not billions..

i wasn't talking about welfare... at least not the kind that poor people get... i was talking about politicians getting money for big projects that really don't need to be done- building stadiums for privately owned sports teams or building a light rail line that costs billions to build and tens of millions to run every year while only benefiting a very small portion of the population. i won't even get into the profitability of wars for certain large companies. things like that.

I'm getting ripped off on sales tax. Between state, county, and local sales tax, it's 10%. Plus I pay state income tax too.

7% here. There's a patchwork of stuff, some counties tax groceries and some don't.

Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. The downfall is that We The People have voted ourselves goodies from the tax funded piggy bank for so long and our elected representatives have fallen all over themselves to give it to us without raising taxes so they can keep their important jobs (rolleyes here) that we are basically screwed. It's gonna implode at some point and it ain't gonna be pretty when it does. Think it can't happen? Ask Iceland.

novaderrik wrote: i'd have no problem paying more in taxes if i knew the money wasn't being wasted.. but as it sits now, government at every level are masters of wasting money on stupid things to buy votes in the next elections, so i want to pay as little as possible.

That's what I don't understand. To me, the answer is simple. You want more of my money? Stop wasting what I'm already giving you, and you won't need more.

Curmudgeon wrote: ... It's gonna implode at some point and it ain't gonna be pretty when it does. Think it can't happen? Ask Iceland.

I am pretty sure Icelands situation has almost nothing to do with what you are trying to associate it with.

I believe Icelands situation is the result of the banks being de-regulated, which resulted in the banks going going completely insane with really bad investments/practices. Examples from Wikipedia:

• Almost half of all the loans made by Icelandic banks were to holdings companies, many of which are connected to those same Icelandic banks.

• Money was allegedly lent by the banks to their employees and associates so they could buy shares in those same banks while simply using those same shares as collateral for the loans. Borrowers were then allowed to defer paying interest on the loan until the end of the period, when the whole amount plus interest accrued was due. These same loans were then allegedly written off days before the banks collapsed.

• Kaupthing allowed a Qatari investor to purchase 5% of its shares. It was later revealed that the Qatari investor “bought” the stake using a loan from Kaupthing itself and a holding company associated with one of its employees (i.e. the bank was, in effect, buying its own shares).[133]

The government got involved when they had to bail out the banks, thus costing the country/taxpayers massively. Basically a more extreme version (because the country is so small) of what happened here. The other difference of course is that they seem to be planning on prosecuting the guilty parties.

Not really anything to do with over government spending in the sense we are discussing here though.

Deregulation being the boogeyman that always causes collapse amuses me. It's not like if you all the sudden took away government regulations every business would make bad investments and collapse. And if they did the problem would be self correcting.

MrJoshua wrote: Deregulation being the boogeyman that always causes collapse amuses me. It's not like if you all the sudden took away government regulations every business would make bad investments and collapse. And if they did the problem would be self correcting.

apparently you've never heard the phrase "too big to fail"..