Ohio Must Return to a Progressive Fair Tax System

[irishbobcat]

how poor are thee?

[Rick Rowlands]

Heck I'm poorer that both of you! But being a conservative is not about wealth, its a philosophy.  A philosophy that teaches one to fish instead of providing a fish.  A philosophy of pursuing ones own self interests, and not standing in the way of others who want to pursue their self interests.  This philosophy also states that the best government is the one that governs least, and that government exists at all to do those things that individuals cannot do for themselves.

Truly the fairest tax is the tax that charges every adult citizen an equal share of the cost of running government.  The founding fathers were big on equality.  "All men are created equal" was written in the Declaration of Independence.   Equal protection under law is a bedrock principle in the Constitution.  I think they would look favorably on a tax that all shares equally.  Since we are all equal citizens, and since we are all equally protected by our military, all have equal access to our courts of law, then why should we not all equally pay for these things? 

The beauty of this system is that when everyone has equal ownership in the government, all of a sudden EVERYONE starts paying attention to how the government is spending that money.  Fraud and waste would be ferreted out since it would affect people personally.  We as a people would quickly come to the conclusion that maybe we don't really need that bridge to nowhere, or that Nancy Pelosi should fly coach, or that the under secretary to the under secretary's position should be eliminated.  It would be a good thing for America.

[Dan Moadus]

Dennis, if you ain't a Socialist, they better redefine it. Also for your information, I am not a rich person. I have never invested and as far as income, I would be considered barely making it into the middle class. I would be willing to match my lifetime earnings, as listed in the Social Security info that they send everyone, against yours to see who is the richest. We could take the top 25 years of earnings for each of us and the guy who made the most pays the other a dollar for every thousand more that he earned. A deal?

[irishbobcat]

Dan, I'm not a socialist either......I just believe in a progressive tax system....not regressive, and all
on the backs of the poor and middle class like you rich right wing neo-cons would have it.....

[Dan Moadus]

According to Dennis' figures, someone earning $352,000 pays $27,456 in taxes, while someone earning $17,000 pays $2,040. Now granted it's probably less painful for the person making $352,000 to pay the $27,456 than it is for the person who pays the $2,040, but I don't think its fair to accuse the former of not paying his or her "fair share". But then again, I'm not a Socialist.

[Rick Rowlands]

The fairest tax would be as follows:

Take the yearly budget of the federal government, lets say $1 trillion dollars.  Divide it by 230,000,000 people. 
Send each citizen a bill for $4,348.  Their FAIR SHARE of the cost to run the government.

If this were to happen then ALL OF US would have an equal stake in the future of the country, and all of us would pay much more attention to how the government spends its money.  We may find that once everyone pays into the system that there are a lot of things that government does that we don't need after all.

[irishbobcat]

Ohio Must Return to a Progressive Fair Tax System

Low-and middle-income Ohioans pay a much greater share of their income in state and local taxes than the state's most affluent do, according to a study by Policy Matters Ohio.

The top 1 percent of non-elderly Ohio families by income, who earned at least $352,000 in 2007, on average pay 7.8 percent of their income in state and local taxes. By contrast, the lowest fifth, who make less than $17,000, on average pay 12.0 percent. Families in the middle fifth of the income spectrum, who make between $32,000 and $50,000, on average pay 11.0 percent.

Recent changes in Ohio's state and local tax system have increased the disparity. The report found that Ohio ranks 28th among states in the fairness of its tax system, based on the share of their income affluent Ohioans are paying in state and local taxes compared to that of lower- and middle-income Ohioans. Last time the study was done, which covered the law as of 2002, Ohio ranked 14th by this measure.

The national report, Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States, was produced by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and released in Ohio by Policy Matters Ohio and The Center for Community Solutions. It reviews every state's tax system based on permanent changes in law enacted through October 2009 and income levels from 2007 (the most recent year that necessary data is available across states).

"No one would ever design an income tax with lower tax rates for the best-off taxpayers," noted Matthew Gardner, ITEP's executive director and lead author of the study. "But that is exactly what Ohio's tax system overall does: It allows the very wealthiest individuals to contribute less of their income, on average, than middle- and lower-income families must pay. In other words, Ohio has an unfair, regressive tax system."
Dennis Spisak-Green Party of Ohio Candidate for Governor
www.votespisak.org/governor/
www.dennisspisak.com