When Does Your State Let Up on Your Taxes?

Americans for Tax Reform have published a fiscal breakdown calculated on a Cost-of-Government-Day (COGD) for each of the fifty states.

These costs include the “varying government burdens suffered in each state”. As the site says, … “federal tax and spending burdens are a large contributing factor. These federal burdens vary because relatively higher burdens are borne by states with relatively higher incomes”.

The Baron has dtevised a color-coded map of all the states which illustrates how hot your tax rate is. Alaska is quite cool; they get to go out and play as of July 11th every year. Poor Connecticut misses lunch and recess, but it does finish up by September 7th, which leaves a little time to have some fun before supper. Whadda drag for Connecticut, California, New Jersey and New York. Well, you kind of expect that with New Joisy.

Does anyone have the corruption figures for the fifty states? We know they all have some, it’s just that there are relatively cleaner places.

Ah, how the Road to Hell is paved with such good intentions, especially when the Pooh-Bahs are using OPM - other people’s money.


Evidently, things don’t change much from year to year, including the exit rate of some high-cost states’ inhabitants. Old hands at this, the Americans for Tax Reform say:

As in previous years, the latest Cost of Government Day is in Connecticut, with the average worker toiling all the way until September 7 to pay off all the costs of government at each level. The dubious honor of second place is held by New Jersey, with COGD now falling on September 6. New York is right behind on August 31, followed by California and Maryland.

I have had email discussions with some denizens of New York state and of California who say they simply cannot afford to live in those states anymore.

Remember the old saying regarding the three most important things about real estate: “location, location, location”. Well, that’s changing: the most important question for the middle class is “how much is the tax rate in this burg?”
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For the rich, the real estate and personal property tax rate is not a serious consideration, though the state income tax may have some bearing on their decision. At the very least it will give them something to complain about at cocktail parties.

For the poor, the tax rate is important only to the extent it affects affordable rental housing. The bottom line for the indigent and those near poverty level is “how much will the state grant me in housing, food, and health benefits”?

You will notice, however, the link between the two. That is, the state and localities which provide more benefits also have a heavier tax hand lying across the backs of the taxpayers.

The table ranks each of the states and tells you on which date you are free of the tax encumbrance and the money that you earn begins to belong to you.

If you live in a state where unions rule, where welfare benefits are generous, and where anything that can be taxed has a bite taken out of it, then you could work for nine months to service your state’s burdens.

To some extent, this depends too on where you live in the state. For example, in Virginia, which is where we live, the people in the northern part of the state - closer and closer to the federal government - pay more for everything. That’s why, when the federales retire, they move to the southern part of the state.

And Heaven knows, we do have more than our share of retired state department mojos, driving up real estate prices in chi-chi places like Charlottesville. They have those fat government pensions and their money goes a long way here compared to what it would cost them to stay in congested, over-built Northern Virginia. Meanwhile, municipal employees in towns like Charlottesville, where these people retire, can’t actually afford to live there themselves. They’ve been crowded out by government largesse and all the tax-free land the government-funded University of Virginia swallows up.

On a related note, a friend from high school sends me interminable forwards. I’m sure you get your share of limp jokes and wildly improbable stories. Mostly I simply delete them but this particular missive fits in with my post, though I haven’t checked her figures for accuracy. However, I’ve noticed that when it comes to the spoils system, it pays to believe the higher figures.

She complains:

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.

Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.

Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.

In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments.

For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00, after retirement with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives. [Actually, Senator Byrd will be carried off the Senate floor in a pine box, so I’m not sure he counts - D]

Younger Dignitaries who retire at an earlier age will receive much more during the rest of their lives.

Their cost for this excellent plan? Zero. Nada. Zilch…at least for them. You and I pick up the tab for this fine plan, which is paid directly from the General Funds.

From our own Social Security pension plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into every payday until we retire, the average worker can expect $1,000 per month after retirement. And that pension will be taxed, again thanks to our diligent Congress.

Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average monthly benefit for 68 years and one month to equal Senator Bill Bradley’s yearly draw.

The point of her rant was that by removing themselves from the equation, our fine political class has no motivation to fix Social Security. And she’s right. It’s the same with ObamaCare: whatever convoluted “allocation of scarce resources” they devise, the final Frankenstein’s monster that limps out of Committee will have no bearing on them. They will continue with their own special, taxpayer-paid health plan.

Not for nothing are they known as the Imperial Congress.

The Center for Fiscal Responsibility’s website is a wealth of information.

Here is the Taxpayer Protection Pledge:

Fiscal accountability’ revolves around two components of government finance: Taxes and Spending.

While many of the tools the Center for Fiscal Accountability promote focus on accountability in spending, Americans for Tax Reform has a long standing track record of promoting and achieving greater accountability on the tax side through its flagship:

The Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

The Pledge, a commitment made by elected officials and candidates for public office never to raise taxes, was created by Americans for Tax Reform at the request of President Reagan in 1986, and has since become de rigueur for Republicans seeking office, and is a necessity for Democrats running in Republican districts. Numbers in Congress are approaching 50% in each house.

Politicians often run for office saying they won’t raise taxes, but then quickly turn their backs on the taxpayer. The idea of the Pledge is simple enough: Make them put their no-new-taxes rhetoric in writing.

In the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, candidates and incumbents solemnly bind themselves to oppose any and all tax increases. While ATR has the role of promoting and monitoring the Pledge, the Taxpayer Protection Pledge is actually made to a candidate’s constituents, who are entitled to know where candidates stand before sending them to the capitol. Since the Pledge is a prerequisite for many voters, it is considered binding as long as an individual holds the office for which he or she signed the Pledge.

Today the Taxpayer Protection Pledge is offered to every candidate for state office and to all incumbents. More than 1,100 state officeholders, from state representative to governor, have signed the Pledge. Statehouse tax-and-spend interests have to contend with Pledge signers in every state.

Go here to see if your representative and senators have signed the Pledge. Ours, Congressman Tom Perriello, has not.This is just one more target of opportunity with which to bring the man to justice.

Out of one hundred senators, only thirty-four have agreed to fiscal responsibility. Neither of Virginia’s high flyers have bothered signing on. How can you have fiscal responsibility when you’re busy signing away the future of the country?

Senate Members

AL		Richard Shelby		NE		Mike Johanns
AL		Jeff Sessions		NE		Ben Nelson
AK		Lisa Murkowski		NH		Judd Gregg
AZ		John McCain		NV		John Ensign
AZ		Jon Kyl		OK		Tom Coburn
FL		Mel Martinez		OK		Jim Inhofe
GA		Saxby Chambliss		PA		Arlen Specter
GA		Johnny Isakson		SC		Lindsey Graham
ID		Mike Crapo		SC		Jim DeMint
ID		Jim Risch		SD		John Thune
KS		Pat Roberts		TN		Bob Corker
KS		Sam Brownback		TN		Lamar Alexander
KY		Mitch McConnell		TX		Kay Bailey Hutchison
KY		Jim Bunning		TX		John Cornyn
LA		David Vitter		UT		Bob Bennett
MO		Kit Bond		UT		Orrin Hatch
NC		Richard Burr		WY		Mike Enzi

If your elected government servants don’t appear on this list, you might want to send them a warm letter of regards, outlining their chances in the next election when their failure to sign on for fiscal responsibility comes to light.

This list represents 34 per cent of our current Senate. So SIXTY-SIX per cent — two thirds — of our Senators don’t care. They need to get on board or the train needs to leave without them.

Here’s another factoid that the Americans for Tax Reform group has shot full of holes:

U.S Govt. Spends MORE Taxpayer Dollars on Healthcare Per Person Than ANY Major Developed Country, by Tim Andrews

ObamaCare proponents have long decried the “failure” of free market health care in the U.S. “If only we had more government money” they said! If only we could throw some more taxpayer dollars at it then everything would be okay! The free market has failed, so we need government to step in!

We have a free market in healthcare in the U.S at the moment?

Yeah, right.

In fact, the U.S Government spends more per person on healthcare than any other major developed country.

I repeat. Per person, when it comes to healthcare the U.S Government spends more per person than pretty much any other government. This isn’t total spending. This doesn’t include insurance or individual payments. This is government spending. Only. These are OUR tax dollars. And we have more government involvement in health than any other major nation. [my emphasis - D]

This is NOT a free market. This is a clear case of government failure.

If ObamaCare is enacted, we will be spending close to $4,000 in taxpayer dollars - in the most inefficient way possible. We already spend more taxpayer dollars than Europe on health, and it clearly hasn’t work.

At the moment, the U.S has a world class private system, but also with government muddying the water, interfering, and creating the many problems that currently do exist.

The solution is NOT to do more of that which has failed. Rather, is it to take advantage of what works: the market.

The solution is NOT more government - it is less…

NOTE: click on the link to see his graph.

Let’s face it: we have a bunch of money-drunk free spenders running our government. This is a top-down problem in Washington, D.C. but it has a bottom-up solution here in the hinterlands.

We need more than a tea party or two: we need concerted, smart organizing, things the average person can do, even if they work two jobs to keep government paid and happy.

Here’s one effective move you can make. It will cost some stamps, some paper, maybe some emails. Emails are quicker, but snail mail to their local hiding places offices would be more effective. Imagine if your “representative” (your current crook in the district seat) got a few hundred of these (pdf) from his constituents? Just fill in his name for him so he knows who you’re talking at.

The only necessity on your part would be printing out the form and sending it. There are forms for your Senators, Governor, and state Representatives (all pdf files).

This could grow. Your five letters (two Senators, one Congressman, one Governor, and one state representative. With the cost of printing those five pdf pages plus 5 envelopes, 5 stamps, and about fifteen minutes, you could start a paper avalanche…I hate chain emails, but send five individual invitations to others to do the same.

Democrat or Republican, we’re all getting killed with taxes. No need to mention partisan projects, just express your concern for our future citizens. You’d better include the pertinent addresses for these pledge papers. It’s human nature to be lazy.

Heck, maybe some businesses would let you leave a stack of these in their store (with the address listings attached). Locally owned businesses are really hurting, thanks to the federal overreach.

It didn’t start with this administration, but this is as good a place to stop as any.

Go on, be a citizen. You’ll feel better.


Hat tip: The Lurker from Tulsa