[Vision2020] State Budget Deficits

[Paul Rumelhart]

I was just going to post something similar.  Nobody likes higher taxes, 
but I don't see any other way around the problem.  You can only cut 
spending so much.  12.5% is a huge number.  That's equivalent to cutting 
1 in every 8 budget items for the entire budget.  It appears that we are 
overspending the amount we have coming in.  One way to fix that is to 
increase what comes in.  I take Jeff's point about the yacht tax from a 
week or two ago that raising taxes indiscriminately can actually reduce 
the amount coming in if not looked at wisely.  So let's look at it 
wisely, and raise our tax burden high enough that we can meet 
expenditures with revenues.

At the same time, any decrease in spending that we can come up at the 
same time will reduce the amount that the increase in taxes has to 
cover.  We need to attack this from both sides.

There may be other changes we can make, too, but I'm no expert on 
those.  Changing the laws to attract certain businesses, for example.

Paul

Reggie Holmquist wrote:
> We should cut spending AND raise taxes.  We're NEVER going to be able 
> to gut the budget enough to make up for the projected deficit.  
> Raising taxes is going to be necessary.  The question is:  Which taxes 
> should we raise?
>
> -Reggie
>
> On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 12:24 PM, Jeff Harkins <jeffh at moscow.com 
> <mailto:jeffh at moscow.com>> wrote:
>
>      On 1/4/2011 6:02 AM, Joe Campbell wrote:
>     > Pretty revealing!
>     >
>     > No real plan here, no solution. Just complaints and a slogan:
>     "Cut taxes!"
>     >
>     > For which of the values on your list is this appropriate?
>     >
>     >
>     Honesty, real life, responsibility, foresight, sacrifice,
>     stewardship to
>     name a few.  The truth is ...  the chickens have come home to roost!
>
>     Cutting spending does not imply raising taxes.  Your hyperbole is
>     failing.  A cut of about 12.5% is necessary to balance state budgets -
>     that is a fact - and getting a balanced budget is a "pretty damn
>     good" plan.
>
>     By requiring government agencies to start the process of identifying
>     those areas that can be cut and then absorbing and allocating those
>     cuts.  Should be a shared responsibility.
>
>     Funny, I didn't see your plan - just your cheap shots and sarcasm.
>
>
>
>
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