To Tax More Rich ‎

Washington State, where politics is as liberal as it gets, has an initiative on its Nov. 2 election ballot to charge a personal income tax on the “rich,” according to an Oct 26 special report by the Tax Foundation. Presently it’s one of seven states with no individual income tax. Washington State voters, along with other Americans will be worriedly awaiting Congress’s decision in the lame duck session next month whether to let the Bush tax cuts expire on Dec. 31. President Obama and his fellow lefties in Congress have bellowed endlessly that the Bush tax drops favor the “rich.”

Washington State’s Initiative 1098 would initiate an income tax on high earners at a rate of 5 percent on income over $200,000 ($400,000 for couples) and 9 percent on income over $500,000 ($1 million for couples). “Officials guess that the new tax would raise approximately $2.2 billion per year. Of that amount $600 million would be used to decrease property taxes by about 4 percent and provide additional credits against the state gross receipts tax.” New spending on health care and education would assert the left over $1.6 billion.

If proposition 1098 passes, “a constitutional challenge is likely,” writes Joseph Henchman. Director of state projects for the Tax Foundation. Since the income tax was ruled unconstitutional in the state, voters there have discarded previous attempts to accept an income tax. “Washington’s planned new income tax “would be out of the norm in two respects, said Henchman. “It will relate to all adjusted gross income with no exemptions or deductions, and it will apply only to high-income earners.” Further, “just as numerous other states are overturning so-called millionaires’ taxes or allowing them to expire, Washington would be accepting one.”

Washington’s constitution has a uniformity section. Its purpose has been described as “strict constitutional supplies requiring equal and uniform taxation.” The initiative’s extremely slim base (exempting over 98 percent of taxpayers) would probably violate that provision,” Henchman wrote. In essence, a mass of voters would decide whether to impose a tax on 1.2 percent of the population.

Sales tax receipts up for most in county

Most all of the entities that collect a local sales tax in the county saw tax receipts up over year-ago statistics, according to the latest information from State Comptroller Susan Combs. The City of Corsicana saw sales tax receipts increase 3.98 percent from year ago statistics. The city’s split of sales taxes for the month was $416,471.65, up from $400,512.00 from one year ago. For the year-to-date, sales tax receipts are down 1.01 percent, with receipts totaling $4,122,672.68 for 2010, compared to a year-to-date total of $4,165,154.97 for 2009.

Statewide, sales tax receipts were up 6.8 percent from year ago figures. Gains in almost all sectors, including oil and gas, construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade and restaurants were noted, Combs said in a release announcing the latest statistics. The collections actually symbolize sales taxes collected in September from sales made in August 2010.

Even with the 1.01 percent arrears from year ago statistics, city leaders are happy with that figure — they had budgeted a loss of 1.58 percent for the year. Should next month’s figures come in at or near 2009 levels, the city will end the economic year very close to what it had projected, around $4.9 million.
Going forward in the budget just adopted, city leaders have estimated a drop of about $100,000 from this year’s projection, although it could be spring before a correct projection on receipts could be made.

It’s very important that we end the year where we thought we were going to. It is a good sign. It is really very satisfied to see (August) not in a ‘negative’ category. That has not been the trend this year.

Only four tax entities in Navarro County Mildred, Navarro, Oak Valley and Richland saw decreases for the month from year ago figures. Combining all taxing entities in the county, receipts were up 4.58 percent from the same month a year ago, and down 1.05 percent for the year, with $442,578 collected for the month, and $4,386,088.71 year-to-date.