When is Enough, Enough?

Here is a partial list of the various ways in which private citizens of Massachusetts are taxed.  This list does not include business owners, who are subjected to even MORE taxes, this is just a list of the federal and local taxes (and again, not all) the average working class person pays in this lovely state of ours. 

·         Building Permit Tax

·         Capital Gains Tax

·         CDL license Tax

·         Cigarette Tax

·         Dog License Tax

·         Federal Income Tax

·         Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

·         Fishing License Tax

·         Gasoline Tax

·         Hunting License Tax

·         Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money)

·         Liquor Tax

·         Luxury Taxes

·         Marriage License Tax

·         Meals Tax

·         Medicare Tax

·         Property Tax

·         Rental Tax

·         Social Security Tax

·         Sales Taxes

·         Satellite Tax

·         School Tax

·         State Income Tax

·         State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

·         Telephone federal excise tax

·         Telephone federal universal service fee tax

·         Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes

·         Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax

·         Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax

·         Telephone state and local tax

·         Telephone usage charge tax

·         Tolls on Highways, Bridges and Tunnels

·         Vehicle Sales Tax

·         Watercraft Registration Tax

·         Workers Compensation Tax

That’s one hell of a long list!!  But in some towns, that apparently isn’t enough.  Take Concord MA for instance. If one particular state senator has her way, she’ll be adding one more method to shaft you out of your hard earned money. 

State Senator Cory Atkins from Concord (D) thinks it would be a fine idea to levy a local income tax to help ease the burden of the property taxes Concord places on its residents. (Atkins' Experiment).  "Atkins, testifying before the Revenue Committee, said local income tax supporters hope the resulting income will help communities reduce property taxes for individuals on fixed incomes and with lower incomes." 

What I fail to understand about this ridiculous proposal (H03375) is twofold. 

First, there are some households in Concord that pay as much as $26,000 a year in property taxes.    Do you realize that's a tad less than what 50% of the average American workers made last year? (D. Thompson – The Atlantic)  How is it possible then, a town as small as Concord is NOT able to balance a budget when from just ONE property, they took in just about half of what the American worker made in ALL of last year?   Oh….. I’m sorry… what was that? Only 1800 households in Concord, you say??  Here’s a thought.  Build more of them.  Give people incentives to move to your fair community and help ease the tax burden that way.  In other words, do what other cities and towns do to help raise money.

  

Here is the second part of this lunacy that gets me.   This preposterous idea is basically creating one tax to “ease the burden” of another.  Note I didn’t say “lower” the tax of another. That’s because they aren't lowering anything at all.  If you really wanted to "ease any burden" on any taxpayer, wouldn't you would just LOWER their taxes?   This thinly disguised "experiment" is only helping the town of Concord raise more money, with which they will do who knows what, but make no mistake about it, this is all about fattening the bottom line of the towns revenue. But does the town really need more money? 

According to Concord's own records, (ConcordMAFY2012) they sit on over $5 billion worth of property. ($5,395,572,084 to be exact)  Even at a ridiculously low rate, obviously used only to illustrate a point, let’s say a flat property tax rate of a 1% was instituted across the board.  That would yield over $53 million a year for the town budget. That’s one tax, at one flat rate.  $53 million.   Tell me again Ms. Atkins, why does Concord need to institute another tax?

Now imagine if you were the poor sap paying the $26000 a year in property taxes, AND you actually worked in Concord. That means you would need to pay this local income tax in order to “ease the burden” of your own property tax!  Doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it?  Asking everyone that merely works in Concord to ease the burden on those that live there is like asking Canada to pay off our national debt. Its just wrong.  Tax those that enjoy the benefits and services of Concord, you know…its residents?  What’s next, a toll booth on Route 2?

Ms. Atkins, can’t you do more constructive things with your time, like actually serving the public instead of figuring out more ways to bilk them out of money?  Isn't that what you agreed to do when you accepted your chair in the Senate? At the very least, go figure out why Concord thinks it needs any one household to pay $26000 in a ridiculous TAX and fix that problem. I’ll give you a hint – It has everything to do with cutting back on local government.  I’m not talking services like Police and Fire; I’m talking about firing people like you. You know the ones on the town payroll that make it their job to figure out how to get more money from the people that actually work for a living? Yeah, fire those people.