By almost every measure, the U.S. has one of the most progressive systems of taxation in the world, in which high-income people pay the highest tax rates. Everyone agrees on this basic fact, except the New York Times.
If the multi-state, regional Transportation & Climate Initiative takes effect, and if Vermonters pay the 36 cents per gallon that Californians will pay under their similar “cap and trade” program, Vermont drivers could pay an extra $137 million per year.
California has the highest gas taxes in the nation at an average of 57.8 cents a gallon — more than one-eighth of the total price of the gas. The tax was raised most recently by 5.6 cents per gallon July 1. California imposed a 12 cents-a-gallon tax increase in 2017.
Sanders’ tax would be applied to accumulated wealth instead of just income, which would cut the average billionaire’s wealth in half in 15 years, The New York Times reported citing two economists who helped create the Vermont senator’s plan.
Vermont lost more than twice as many people to distant, less taxed states than it gained from mostly neighboring states that were taxed about the same as Vermont. That’s what the migration data tells us.
At what point will Vermonters wake up to the fact that allowing government involvement in health care is a very expensive mistake? It will probably be a while because ratepayers, I suspect, aren’t as angry with the politicians as they are with the insurance companies, and this isn’t really fair.
Low-income earners should not have to deal with the complexities of the US income tax system until they reach a certain standard of living. This is why all Vermonters 25 or younger making less than $22,000 should be exempt from Vermont’s income tax.
That’s right, on a per capita basis, we each paid $5,015 to our Vermont government in 2017, more than any other state.
TABOR basically states that any revenue raised beyond what was required to meet the fiscal year’s budgeted obligations must be returned to the taxpayers. Period. End of discussion.
Thanks in part to the 2017 Trump federal tax reform, Vermont state corporate income tax receipts are up $38 million over last year.
The federal government’s overall financial condition worsened by $4.5 trillion in 2018, according to an analysis from government financial watchdog Truth In Accounting (TIA).