I swear, I did not set out to pick apart Carl Wimmer (R-Herriman-District 52) during this legislative session, it just seems to me that he is one of the worst legislators when it comes to drafting sound policy.
I direct your attention to HB 217 – Income Tax Revisions.
I want you all to think back to 2007, times were ok, though not great, but Utah’s economy was starting to settle into nice, steady, growth. The argument was put forward that, because times will always be good, we should simply have a flat tax of 5%, if only because we wouldn’t have to adjust things and upset people when we do – sure, we may loose a few bucks here and there, but overall, the citizens of our state will be happier.
And then the bubble burst. Because we don’t have different taxes for different incomes, it is alot more difficult to balance the budget without going back to the old formula – we would have to raise taxes in an attempt to raise revenue.
So, Wimmer, being the smart policy maker that he is, attempts to balance the budget…by lowering taxes even more.
Yes folks, Wimmer is using the classic “trickle down” argument to justify tax cuts in a year where vital services are being slashed in an attempt to stay afloat. And he is not doing this by a small amount, no sir, he is doing it by reducing the corporate and personal income tax by a full .25%. Now that may not sound much to you, but when your billion dollar plus budget takes a .25% hit, you notice. In fact the fiscal note attached to this bill says that we would notice it to the tune of over $1.6 million over just the next two years.
That is $1.6 million we no longer have during thin times when dollars are already being stretch thin. That is $1.6 million the taxpayer is already used to paying. That is $1.6 million that originally would have gone to our schools, and just our schools – all because Wimmer feels that money will simply trickle down from the top.
Now I have always been a fan of “trickle down economics” because its name is so descriptive – it is literally the rich pissing on the middle and lower classes – they get to buy an extra flat screen TV and we get to buy an extra tank of gas in a given year.Yes, if you earn $20,000, you get a whopping $50 more in a year.
Wimmer fails to realize that, as Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society. We are not in fat times where lavish spending is taking place for government services, rather we are living in times where vitally important programs such as meals on wheels and CHIP are being cut in an attempt to maintain some sort of service, we are living in a time where roads go one extra year without maintenance, we are living in a time where schools are asked to use the same books again. We are living in a time where everyone is tightening up – and Wimmer, apparently, wants to take even that away.
This is not the time for tax cuts. If I am wrong, it means that the recession lasts a bit longer that it could have, but if I am right, we have created long lasting damage that could take years to recover from.
