According to a RPV press release:
Appearing Tuesday on Your Wake Up Call with the Lee Brothers (WTOX 1480), Democrat Chairman Dick Cranwell arrogantly told Virginia businesses and hard working families that they are not paying enough in taxes:
“If you think you got an unusual tax burden in Virginia you need to move to another state.”
(comments below)
Context? The rest of the quote or the circumstances? I got the email from my good buddy Kate too, but they need to give me a bit more detail if they want to get a rise out of me. Pavlov was working with dogs. Little harder with people, even us Republicans.
I thought the line was amusing.
As a partisan Republican, I’m happy to see that Dickie maintains the same attitude which brought his party firmly to minority status. When Dems lose that attitude, they’ll start winning again in Virginia.
Sadly, that attitude has infected too many Republicans since then.
So Cranwell asserted that the Virginia tax burden is average. Is it so dramatically higher that this is either outrageous or funny? Because if that’s so, I don’t know about it.
The top five states where the tax burden as a percent of income is the highest are: Maine (13.0%), New York (12.0%), Hawaii (11.5%), Rhode Island (11.5%), and Wisconsin (11.4%). The United States average is 10.1%. The District of Columbia is 12.2%.
The five states with the lowest tax burden as a percent of income are: Alaska (6.4%) 50th, New Hampshire (7.4%) 49th, Delaware (8.0%) 48th, Tennessee (8.3%) 47th, and Alabama (8.7%) 46th. Alaska has the lowest tax burden because it levies significant severance taxes on oil extracted from the state – taxes that are included in the price of oil sold thereby enabling Alaska to collect taxes that are paid by consumers across the country. As a result, the state sends checks to all residents at tax time.
Virginia ranks 34 with a tax burden of 9.7% as a percentage of income.
Source:retirement living.com
The five states in the middle of the pack come in at 10%, so we could still have below average taxes at 9.9%.
I’d be interested in knowing how they calculated “tax burden”.
I’m hearing that ole Dickie is going to be the Dem nominee against George Allen next year. For what it’s worth…
I’m scratching my head on this one too. He wasn’t saying that people should get out of the state if they don’t like it: if you listened, he was saying that if you think taxes are bad here, check out what other states are like.
As usual, gotcha politics for the cheap distortion.
Thank you for those numbers, Ray — that’s really interesting to know.
So I can understand why a political party might see this quote as one that could be twisted around and exploited. That’s fine — that’s what opposition parties do. But I don’t understand why such a press release is reproduced, without comment, on Bacon’s Rebellion.
As I said when some were saying we should raise our E-911 fee because other counties near us already had higher fees:
My goal is NOT for Virginia to be more like other states. The fact that many other states overtax their citizens is no reason we should do so here.
We are a conservative state, with hopefully conservative principles that work, allowing us to provide our essential government services more effectively and efficiently, at a lower cost, and passing the savings on to the customers, i.e. the citizens.
I don’t imagine Walmart will ever run an ad campaign saying “You think OUR prices are high, you should check out our competitors!!”
Waldo, I posted it because I thought it was interesting and amusing. I posted the source for truth in advertising. I didn’t post a comment on there, because I had nothing to say worth reading. Now explaining this to you makes it doubly so.
Dickie was not advocating a tax increase – it he had, you can bet your sweet conservative asses that ol’ Kate would have let you know. He was simply pointing out the folly of claiming that Virginians are particularly highly taxed compared with other Americans. He’s right.
He may, in fact, believe that lowering taxes would be good for Virginia – that would not be at odds with his point here. It’s possible that he believes that 34th isn’t low enough. His statement is merely that Virginians who think their tax burden is abnormally high need to talk to people in DC, Maryland, Massachusetts, etc.
I find this sort of press release a little ridiculous – it diminishes the credibility of its writer because is quite clearly shows that the writer either didn’t understand the point Dickie was making or is eager to disregard that point in favor of stirring the passions of her less discerning adherents.
Here’s the list of taxes cited by Retirement Living as being included in calculating tax burden as a percentage of income (the data actually come from The Tax Foundation):
*Property Taxes (represents an average; individual property taxes vary by locality)
*Sales and Gross Receipts (different taxing entities may add to the state sales tax)
*Selective Sales Taxes (alcoholic beverages, amusements, insurance premiums, motor fuels, parimutuels, public utilities, tobacco products, and others)
*Licenses (alcoholic beverages, amusements, corporation, hunting and fishing, motor vehicles, motor vehicle operators, public utilities, occupation and business)
*Other Taxes (individual income, corporation net income, death and gift, documentary and stock transfer, severance, and others)
Virginia’s sales tax ranking is 44 (of the bottom six, 5 charge no sales tax).
And, our personal income tax rates are among the lowest, too.
So, if you don’t own property, avoid alcohol and cigarettes, etc., your total tax burden will be lower than Virginia’s low average.
And, here’s what the VA Chamber of Commerce says about our corporate income taxes:
Virginia has one of the most equitable and stable tax structures of the 50 states. The State has not raised its income tax rates since 1972. In addition, the General Assembly has kept Virginia’s taxes on industry competitive by enacting one of the most pro-business tax laws in the nation and by eliminating many tax irritants.
And,regarding our spending, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Virginia ranked 41st in state and local spending per capita and 49th in general spending per $100 of personal income.
Our spending on welfare is 34.7% below the national average per capita, according to the Rockefeller Institute.
So, perhaps we might “forgive” Dick Cranwell for suggesting that Virginians look realistically at what they are paying relative to what they are getting and how their Virginia taxes and quality of life compares to taxes and life in other states.
Of course, there are some who think that we can pay NO taxes and still have good schools, great universities, unclotted roads, mass transit, a clean Bay, healthy communities, etc. … all equally accessible to all.
One wonders if the pictures of disparity and despair from New Orleans have given these folks any second thoughts.
CG2, please name one person who believes we can pay no taxes.
Thanks for the facts and figures.
The disparity and despair in New Orleans is the result of generations of corruption and welfare. The handmaidens of socialism. The poor aren’t poor in Louisiana because the people in Louisiana pay too little in taxes.
OK, I read NO taxes as hyperbole not to be taken seriously.
CG’s point is well taken, in my opinion. And so is JAB’s. I don’t see a disagreement here. Disparity and despair is deep seated and has many roots.
Parenthetically I would not that the stats above include business taxes, the reasoning being that business taxes are passed along to the consumer.
Thanks to CG2, I was too busy to respond to the question.
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