- Illinois Governor Pat Quinn proposes a cigarette taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. hike as a “short term solution” and an income tax hike as a “long term solution.” Illinois is not exactly known for its low taxes as it is.
- Ohio Governor wants to freeze a phased-in-over-five-years income tax reduction in its third year. The income tax cuts were the sugar in return for Ohio adopting the bitter Commercial Activities Tax (CAT), a destructive gross receipts taxA gross receipts tax, also known as a turnover tax, is applied to a company’s gross sales, without deductions for a firm’s business expenses, like costs of goods sold and compensation. Unlike a sales tax, a gross receipts tax is assessed on businesses and apply to business-to-business transactions in addition to final consumer purchases, leading to tax pyramiding. . The suspension would increase taxes by $850 million.
- Mexican President Felipe Calderon proposes a 2% sales tax hike. His legislative opponents want him to exempt food and medicine, which is a big part of the sales taxA sales tax is levied on retail sales of goods and services and, ideally, should apply to all final consumption with few exemptions. Many governments exempt goods like groceries; base broadening, such as including groceries, could keep rates lower. A sales tax should exempt business-to-business transactions which, when taxed, cause tax pyramiding. base anywhere, let alone Mexico.
- PLUS, a tax is proposed to fund war, and a tax is passed to fund a mall. Joseph Thorndike says hawks should love the war tax because they think it’s a just cause, and doves should love it because people will balk at the cost of the war. Of course, doves will hate the war tax because they don’t think it’s a just cause, and hawks will hate it because they think people will balk at the cost. And the mall tax is simply corporate welfare.
