atr – Moe Lane

ATR: The Blue State Brain/Worker Drain continues.

In 2013, more than 200,000 people on net fled states with Democrat governors for ones run by Republicans, according to an analysis of newly released IRS data by Americans for Tax Reform.

[snip]

That year, Democrat-run states lost a net 226,763 taxpayers, bringing with them nearly $15.7 billion in adjusted gross income (AGI). That same year, states with Republican governors gained nearly 220,000 new taxpayers, who brought more than $14.1 billion in AGI with them.

Only one-third of states with Democrat governors gained taxpayers, compared to three-fifths of states with Republican governors.

And, as I understand it: the traditional worry that the Right have about these internal immigrants is a bit overblown. A lot of them are leaving because they want to breathe a little easier, which means that they don’t necessarily intend to try to change everything around the second they get to their new digs. Which, you know, makes a certain amount of sense? I mean, they still might have bad habits, but you can break bad habits…

You lie.

2008:

“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

2010 (bolding mine):

…since any Social Security plan would probably preserve benefits for those nearing retirement, it would not help the administration achieve its goal of reducing the deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product, from 10 percent, within a decade.

One way to reach that 3 percent goal, by the calculations of Mr. Obama’s economic team: a 5 percent value-added tax, which would generate enough revenue to simultaneously permit the reduction in corporate tax rates Republicans favor.

Continue reading You lie.

Democrats in Wisconsin trying to extend, bloat cell phone tax.

There is no such thing as a temporary tax.

There are merely taxes that people pay attention to, and then there are taxes that people forget about. And once they forget about them, the government can safely and quietly make them permanent. Wisconsin’s cell phone tax is a case in point:

In 2003, the state created the cell phone tax to upgrade 911 response services. When the upgrade was done, it left a balance of $20 million in the state’s coffers, which was slated to be returned back to consumers as a credit on their phone bill.

However, Gov. [Jim] Doyle has now proposed extending the cell phone tax, raising it by 75-cents, and then making it applicable to all landlines as well. Oh, then he would then add another 56-cent tax to cell phones for the state’s Universal Service Fund, which has nothing to do with cell phone usage. All told, the proposal amounts to a $100 million per year tax increase on cell phone users.

See also local blogs Wigderson Library & Pub, No Runny Eggs, and Boots and Sabers for more details. I will repeat: this is how permanent tax hikes happen. It’s easy to put them in – and once they’re there, they’re staying there, as Wigderson reminded us about the 100 year old phone tax. Remember that any government will always consider a tax to be justified (otherwise, it wouldn’t impose it in the first place), and will thus think nothing of trying to find some way to keep it, and the revenue that it represents. That’s just the way the world works – and that’s one reason why the GOP defaults to supporting tax cuts: it’s always a safe bet to make that the government’s taking too much of your money.

Needless to say, both the Governor and the state legislature of Wisconsin are Democratic. Still, that party’s control of the legislature is by thin margins, so pushback is possible. People are coordinating one through here and here; I suggest that people check it out, particularly the ones from Wisconsin itself.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.