A Governor Wonders: Could The Tax Code Cause Lost Jobs?
A bit of satire from the Tax Foundation:
After learning that yet another large employer was closing its doors, the Governor of Wismichigillinoserseyania was overheard brainstorming with an aide about possible causes.
“I’ll admit our tax code isn’t that friendly to the individuals who create jobs,” pondered Governor Doyrendholmzinejevich. “Could that be the reason that all the individuals who create jobs stay away from our state?”
It is undoubtedly true that the tax code can play a part in whether or not a business chooses to open its doors in one state over another, and it’s also true that America as a whole has the worst business tax environment in the world and that many of the states, individually, top that list as well.
North Dakota, for instance, has among the worst business tax codes in the world. The state’s corporate tax rate is higher than every other country in the world except for Japan. Yet even as North Dakota taxes businesses to death, the state spends hundreds of millions of tax dollars on economic schemes aimed at attracting businesses, and thus jobs, to the state.
That’s right. The political leadership in this state is keeping taxes on businesses high in order to spend its way toward more jobs. Its the sort of economic disconnect that makes me wonder how these people get elected in the first place.
