The Tennessee ConserVOLiance

The Tennessean reported that there is a move afoot by Republicans in the General Assembly to create an amendment to the state constitution that will ban state income and payroll taxes. For details, go to http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081212/NEWS0201/812120408/1009/NEWS01. In reading some of the posted responses to the article, some people are for this ban, and some are against it.

For those who are against the ban, or see no need for it, there is something you need to know. As someone who originally hails from a state with a very backward tax policy (Alabama), I know first-hand the hardships an onerous taxation policy can create. In Alabama, not only did you have your usual sales taxes and property taxes, they had income taxes, and some cities also had an occupational tax (Birmingham was sued over it’s occupational tax). Ad valorem/sales taxes were the favorite vehicles for politicians seeking to raise money instead of reigning in budgets. The thing of it is, life-long residents of a state that holds such backward taxation policies often don’t even realize how enslaved they are to the state plantation. Hard work is not rewarded- it is taxed, and often no good use of the taxes is ever realized by the hard working tax payer.

If a state ban on income and payroll taxes is passed, the residents of Tennessee will hopefully never know the burden such a tax would bring to their way of life. The Assembly will be accountable because they will have to raise taxes in a very visible manner, chiefly by one of two means: one, through a very visible sales tax, or two, through a higher property tax. For mortgage holders paying taxes through an escrow account, they will be rather angry with the Assemblymen raising their mortgage payments without permission. Mortgage escrow accounts are often set to rise when taxed amounts rise in order to pay the taxes. Often the monthly payment will rise by just a few dollars a month, but that isn’t the point. Someone raised it without the mortgage holder’s direct approval. If the house is paid for, then the yearly taxes paid go up by a single lump amount, to be paid in full by the tax payer. Either way, politicians do not care for public bitterness over such a course of action as raising property taxes. In a state with payroll taxes, often the tax is raised, and people chalk it up to higher taxes as usual, and politicians often get away with it. They expect a payroll tax, but they do not expect a higher property tax. Likewise, paying more for groceries will raise the ire of citizens, so pols can’t go that route and expect easy relationships with their constituents.

So you see, banning income and payroll taxes does several things. It keeps politicians honest in regard to budgeting, it reigns in budgets (thus controlling spending), and it frees the money of the working citizen, spurring more spending or saving, which ever the worker chooses to do.

Bravo to the Tennessee Republicans seeking to preserve the rights of citizens to keep their hard-earned money!

http://theconservatarian.blogivists.com/2008/12/12/anti-tax-tennessee/