First Phil, now Fran: Yep, taxes are too high
E. Thomas McClanahanMost people aren’t inclined to weep over the tax problems of rich athletes, except that Phil Mickelson and now Fran Tarkenton are making a legitimate point: Too-high tax rates hurt the economy, and that hurts everyone.
Last month, Mickelson raised hackles in some quarters when he observed that thanks to recent federal and state tax increases (he lives in California), his top rate now exceeds 60 percent. He said high taxes might force him to make some “drastic changes” in his lifestyle. After he was criticized, he backed off and apologized.
But NFL Hall-of-Famer Tarkenton isn’t apologizing. In a piece Tuesday in USA Today, he said Mickelson is right: “If there’s anything that should upset or insult Americans, it’s just how much of their money the government takes.”
It’s easy to think that only famous personalities are affected by all the recent changes — including the new levies in Obamacare. But the relentless upward trend in taxes influences decisions made by countless people not only about where to live (“Hey. Florida has no income tax…”) or, if they’re in business, whether to hire more people.
Tarkenton: “A high income-tax state like California is not just driving away successful men and women like Mickelson, but driving businesses out, too. This ultimately results in even less tax revenue, which sinks California’s economy even more.”
Last month,The Wall Street Journal had a piece noting how much Tiger Woods saves by living in Florida. Sports Illustrated reported his gross income at more than $56 million, so living in Florida rather than California, with its 13.3 percent rate, saves him more than $7 million a year.
The question for California and other high-tax states is how many people are leaving because the tax rate is at least a contributing cause. Their sentiments don’t make the headlines. They just quietly vote with their feet.
It’s not hard to figure out why Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and several other governors want to lower or eliminate their states’ income tax altogether.
Mark Hastert
3 months, 2 weeks agoAw gee, it’s really hard to feel sorry for a guy who’s tax bill is many times the average Americans gross salary just because he can hit a golf ball or a wide receiver.
If CA hadn’t stupidly adopted the Jarvis bill and didn’t have their proposition system they wouldn’t have gotten in to the terrible straits they’re found themselves. Their’s was a failure of philosophy and policy that didn’t allow for flexibility when circumstances demanded.
Matt Henry
3 months, 2 weeks agoBut haven’t you been reading the news, the news about how Jerry Brown has led California to a balanced budget and everything is just peachy in the Golden State?
As with Barb Shelly’s constant misguided harangues about Kansas that supposes that the size and scope of state government has a linear relationship with quality of life, Californians can’t see how today’s “balanced” budget is securing for them a sad future. That state is definitely preparing to reap what they sow.
Matt Henry
3 months, 2 weeks agoWhat circumstances? A corrupt government structure that has bankrupted the state in order to ensure rigid democrat voting blocs for decades to come? Higher property tax rates would have solved that problem?
Nobody is asking anybody to feel sorry for anybody. You miss the whole point. I can see why you would go there, however, since that is how we have been conditioned to see each other nowadays, as members of opposing classes who must be seen as barriers to our own successes. Class warfare is the new standard thanks to our current standard bearer.
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months, 2 weeks agoI think it is poetic justice the libs are reaping what thet have sown. People who demonize the rich, like the first comment above, have fostered these high taxes. They refuse to accept the fact that most people when given the choice of lower taxes will say yes.
May CA sink of its own spendthrift govt. and public sector unions…it is exactly what it has earned…
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months, 2 weeks agoThese lib run cities are falling like ducks, aren’t they?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/06/city-baltimore-is-on-path-to-financial-ruin-report-says/
Phil Cardarella
3 months, 2 weeks agoOK, we can all agree that Tiger pays way too little in taxes. And, yes, most folks would preferr not paying taxes at all, which is why it is not optional.
But, there is the problem with our federalism, right? It allows a “race to the bottom” by states competing to have the lowest taxes — usually at the expense of such services as public education or safe roads and bridges.
Of course, this has not caused a mass migration from California to Kansas — for reasons too lengthy to mention. Folks pay a premium for quality of life.
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months, 2 weeks agoWhat has been the CA migration to NV, AZ and TX???
CA is becoming a minority majority state with the public sector unions trying to squeeze the money from these uneducated immigrants. Good luck with that one libs….
Matt Henry
3 months, 2 weeks agoAre the bridges and school systems and roads and social structure collapsing in Texas? Florida? Other states like Utah to where California residents are flocking? Should they start calling them “Calies”?
If you can demonstrably point to the quality of life in high-taxation states as being better than low then you have a point, Phil. Until then you are just blathering left-wing talking points like always.