State Budget Shortfalls & The Holy land Experience
CSPAN is covering a conference on Taxes and the revenue shortfalls in the states.
Revenue volatility is a major contributing factor in the States budget short falls according to Joseph Henchman of the Tax Foundation. He says that the stimulus package had a lot of strings to it. He is a conservative who wants to see states cut services.
He is not a fan of taxing the wealthy. He believes that it will discourage job creation. This is your usual right wing perspective. He is opposed to tax amnesties and exemptions and waivers. He is a simplified tax fan (code for flat tax). He wants to cut pensions and cut spending.
Prior to this speaker there was another Nickolas Johnson who was saying the opposite that the states had cut taxes in the period since the mid 1990’s and he says that because of cutting revenue streams they have left themselves without needed buffers. Another factor he said is that since most of the increases in income have been among the wealthy and since most taxes in states are relativly flat, that there needs to be a more graduated income tax. He also indicated that most taxes have been on goods and not enough on services. He is saying that the Federal government will not be spending as much on the states next year and that the states will have to raise taxes because most of the cuts have already been made. 2011 will be worse.
Douglas Lindholm of the Council on State Taxation believes in tax standardization. He works for corporations that are in multiple states. He says there will be a lot of cuts, increases and gimmicks. The proximate cause is the recession but the states have been involved in a structural problem. Public workers average $39 an hour and the private sector make $26 an hour. This is including all benefits. Private industry has forced employees to take on more costs for health care and retirement but the public sector has not. He is advocating cutting benefits for public workers. He is against exporting taxes ie taxing interstate commerce. He is basicly saying states need to crack down on their workers, and seek uniformity from state to state to allow a free flow of commerce. He is a free marketer.
He says that the Federal Treasury Department should collect all state taxes and apportion them based on a formula. States see that as an attack on their sovereignty. There is a stalemate between the states and the nation. He thinks it is the Congresses job and so does the Supreme Court. He thinks these multiple tax codes is causing American industry to be less competative. He wants to see the states work more with the feds. He wants to see the feds intervene. Corporations want this if the Congress is the body that sets state taxes then it will be very easy to bribe the right persons. As it is now they have to pay bribes to politicians in every state. He wants to see taxes based on payroll and property. He is opposed to taxing services because he says it is hard to determine what is taxable and he says it weighs more heavily on small business.
They are all saying California is a fiscal basket case. Nick Johnson is saying that rich people do not move because their taxes go up by a percentage point. He says volatility is not caused by millionaire taxes. He says flat tax states have the same problems of boom and bust. He says there is a problem of extreme income inequality that has to be dealt with.
Joseph Henchman is saying that millionaire taxes increased income in the short term in New Jersey but over the long term the taxes went down.
Douglas Lindholm says that tax decisions does not drive business decisions at least at GE where he once worked. He is opposed to combined reporting because it is just a different way to measure liability. He says because definitions are so vague it is all case driven. People pick and choose. I have no idea what this is. He spoke of vertical integration vs horizontal integration and that I remember from college economics classes.
I guess I am interested in this stuff because I deal with numbers every day on the job. I see how real costs relate to real numbers. That is what I do for a living in my industry. It is thus interesting although it creates problems on the macroeconomic level because lots of small decisions create big or small messes.
For a change of pace I have decided to put on a Christian TV station. Experience Jesus they say. The Holy Land Experience in Orlando Florida. Wow Jerusalem AD 66 in Orlando. They have a place called the Scriptorium. They have a chance to experience life with Jesus. Even experiencing the communion at the last super. This is marketing on a whole new level. Beautiful music and hippie looking Jesus’s. I wonder if this is a dope smoking Jesus? This is TBN’s Holy land Experience. Cool they are doing the Rapture. Left Behind is a PC game now. This is serious Christian marketing. For $20 you can get the Left Behind game.
Oral Robertson’s kid is saying he tried to run away and now he is back. I guess the money and the power must have been too much to resist. Billy Blanks is saying that Jesus says you don’t have to get sick. Jesus went on the cross so we don’t have to be sick any more. And just as I was getting totaly offended by that nonsense the soup I was making burned up. No water. That sucks.