Say Anything Blog

If only the paid their fair share
Nick Coleman: Before the rich can be soaked, they have to pay their fair share

This news paper colum is basically calling for redistribution of the wealth. Why should he be any different the left has been telling everyone since they took power that they are going to sock it to the rich. These are same people that create jobs for the rest of the masses. Expect classwarefareism soon.

It’s the same old tired debate about the rich not paying their fair share. It’s no secret that Coleman is a leftist all you have to do is read his articles. Now he is trying to get people to support the tax hikes the Socialist Republic of Minnesota is proposing. The left is using the mantra if we only make the rich pay more.

With the advent of global warming, Minnesota can no longer count on brutally cold weather to keep out the riffraff.
We need high taxes for that.

I’m only joking, but you’d think the Legislature’s proposal to raise income taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent of Minnesota taxpayers amounts to putting signs up at the Iowa and Wisconsin lines saying, “Keep Out, Rich People.”

It’s an intriguing idea, I admit. No more rich people? No more Xanadus on Minnetonka, no ever-increasing demands for corporate tax breaks and endless public subsidies. But the headlines in the newspaper practically have been apocalyptic—“State’s top tax rate may lead nation!”

To me, the headlines have a nostalgic quality. Ah, it feels so good to lead the nation again.

In something.

But the truth is that while the quality of life in Minnesota has been deteriorating in almost every way that matters to common people, Minnesota’s wealthiest have been getting a tax break that they don’t need and don’t deserve. And the result is that the cost of government has shifted unfairly to the middle class while the things that matter to the middle class—public schools, roads, public safety—have declined.

If raising taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent of Minnesotans to the level they were at before conservative Candy Men went on a welfare-for-the-rich binge is what it takes to turn things around, well, I think Minnesotans would make the sacrifice. We aren’t stupid.

According to the state’s Department of Revenue, Minnesota households earning between $45,000 to $105,000 (the state’s median income is about $47,000) pay 12.3 percent in state and local taxes, while households earning above $105,000 pay 10.9 percent. The very wealthiest Minnesotans, earning more than $355,000, pay about 9 percent.

So the rate for the middle class is about one-third higher than for the rich.

You want apocalyptic headlines? Try this: “Minnesota soaks middle class while the rich skate!”

The “progressive” state of Minnesota has adopted a regressive tax system that is becoming more regressive. And it’s time to call a halt to that.

For five years, Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been playing a shell game and pretending taxes haven’t gone up. All the while, licenses and fees have shot up by $1 billion, and property taxes have been going through the roof—averaging an 11 percent increase per year. Since Pawlenty came into office, residential property taxes have increased $1.4 billion, or $866 per household, according to Wayne Cox of Minnesota Citizens for Tax Justice.

“We spend less money per capita, when you adjust for inflation, than we did five years ago,” says Cox. “That’s why schools are in financial disarray and the roads have gone to hell and cities have been laying off firefighters and police officers. The Legislature is trying to get the state back to the level of services we had before.”