We’ve finally figured out why our government never gets around to really doing anything, like fixing potholes, getting our mail delivered on time or helping to cure cancer.
It’s because they are too busy making up new taxes and collecting the bills. The more taxes they collect, the more tax collectors and regulators they hire. After they trick us to vote for a new tax, the next thing they do is start inventing next year’s tax.
Are we right, or what?
April is tax paying season, nobody’s favorite time of the year, except maybe H&R Block. Income taxes are due April 15 (actually April 17 this year) and all Sonoma County homeowners just paid their property taxes this week.
Are we paying too many taxes? Just take a look at a property tax bill. In many cases, almost one-third of the bill is for special assessments. Look closely to see how much you pay each year for mosquito abatement and the Warm Springs Dam that was finished in 1983. Many of us pay for rural fire protection, health district parcel taxes and school bonds. We have not one, but two special assessments for the Santa Rosa Junior College.
We’re not arguing (right now) that any of these taxes are unjustified or excessive. We just wonder how our tax bills got so complicated.
Don’t think the only taxes we pay are property, income or sales tax. That’s just the beginning of the list. Everything has a special tax. Even before recreational marijuana is legal, there’s already a tax for it. Add that to the local transient occupancy tax (tourist bed tax), property transfer tax, gas tax, business license tax, inheritance tax, capital gains, myriad excise taxes and surtaxes on taxes.
Why do we tax everything? Tobacco, carbon, soda pop — even sin.
How long has this been going on?
The first taxes were for supporting wars, dating back to Roman Empire times. The first taxes in Colonial America and the young United States also supported war.
Before there was a marijuana tax, there was a molasses tax. The American Revolution was mostly a rebellion against “taxation without representation.” The British taxed everything and now we do it to ourselves. (Whiskey, tea, sugar, slaves and newspapers were all taxes fought over in the war that won us the independence to tax ourselves.)
This week local sales tax rates went up. Some of the increase will go to our local library operations, a tax we voted on last year. Other parts of our local sales tax are shared with local cities, the open space district, the phantom SMART train and money to widen Highway 101.
But, it’s not enough says Gov. Jerry Brown. He wants to raise the gas tax by 12 cents a gallon to raise $5.2 billion a year to fix our roads. Does this sound familiar? We thought we already had taxes for roads and other basic government services.
What does the county tax collector do with the $81 billion in property taxes we’re going to pay this year? That’s a 31 percent increase since the 2007-08 recession. Where is our 31 percent increase in services?
The county government’s budget this year is $1.7 billion, double what it was just 15 years ago.
Again, we’re not protesting and we don’t believe our local elected officials are squandering or wasting our hard-earned tax contributions. But that doesn’t mean we don’t feel very, very taxed.
Tax reform and promises of tax cuts are always popular campaign promises during elections. Nobody ever gets elected by promising to raise taxes. (“Read my lips.”)
Our tax system is so messed up, the idea of imposing a flat tax or a simple tax sounds complicated.
All we can say is, can we get some relief?
