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Do you pay income tax? You likely do. Even if you got a “refund”
from Uncle Sam, it was simply a return of taxes that you overpaid
through your paycheck or through quarterly payments.
If you paid even a dollar in income tax, you paid more than
General Electric. According to Forbes Magazine (not exactly a
liberal rag), GE and other corporations use fancy accounting and
structural tactics to avoid taxes, even in years when they generate
billions in profit. Simply put, they plan their business strategies
so they lose money in higher tax countries (the USA, for example)
and make money in countries with a lower tax rate. They game the
system so they can generate huge profits while the rest of us pay
taxes to cover the bills.
But, don’t they create jobs? Don’t they reinvest all that cash
in research to make the world a better place? Well, no they don’t.
Corporate profits tend to be focused on the generation of more
corporate profits. Money gets spent on advertising campaigns to
convince you that coal is clean, that technology will save you and
that you have terrifying ailments that require the latest drug.
There’s an incredibly successful ad campaign for a mucus
thinning drug. Who knew that we were in the middle of an epidemic
of snot? Who knew that we could take a drug instead of just
spitting?
More corporate profits go to support politicians who vote the
right way, who vote to keep the system in place. These are the same
dunderheads that screwed up our nation’s credit in a pointless
fight over what amounted to a change in our credit card limit.
Some politicos are fighting back. Earlier this year, Senator
Bernie Sanders released a list of the top 10 tax-shirking
corporations. Four were oil companies (Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Valero
Energy, ConocoPhillips), two were banks (Bank of America and
Citigroup) and the others were GE, Boeing, Goldman Sachs and
Carnival Cruise Lines.
And, corporations don’t create jobs. Small businesses in this
country have always been the heart of job growth, and we get the
shaft when we ask for help.
The city of Healdsburg is about to hire a consultant to “conduct
a ballot measure feasibility study” to see if we’ll tolerate a
quarter-cent or half-cent sales tax bump to pay for local services.
It always irritates me when we conduct a poll over taxes. It seems
more honest to figure out what we need and can’t pay for, then go
ask the voters to pitch in. We’re sensible people, we’ll help out
if we’re asked.
Instead, we hire a pollster to find out how much pain the voters
are willing to accept, then craft a “this is what we need” list and
hope the voters still feel the same way on election day.
By the way, the pollster we’re going to hire with our tax money
will also be charged with figuring out if we can reallocate hotel
tax money. The TOT is supposed to stand for “Transient Occupancy
Tax” but it’s easier to think of it as “Tax On Tourists” because
it’s tacked onto hotel room prices.
Currently, the TOT is 12 percent. Ten percent goes to community
services and two percent to the city’s general fund. The 10 percent
pays for one of the only healthy parks and recreation programs in
the county (thanks, tourists!), but it’s a big chunk of cash and
it’s coveted by other city departments who are running a little
skinnier.
In the 2012 election, look for cops and firefighters holding
signs asking you to reallocate the TOT to public safety. If that
happens, look for parks and recreation programs to go away.
This circles back to the earlier point about taxes. There’s been
a very successful marketing campaign to convince us that
firefighters, cops, public works folks and city administrators are
somehow to blame for the recession, because they make good money
and retire with a living wage.
Really? Has it come to this? If the public sector is doing OK,
getting paid what they’re worth and rewarded for it when they
retire, is it really in our best interest as a society to drag them
down? Why can’t we bring up everyone else?
Ray Holley says the fingers are pointing the wrong way. He
can be reached at [email protected].