Shockingly enough, high tax MN has accumulated a surplus of billions of dollars. Imagine how much more there would be if they weren't pissing away billions on more light rail that people aren't going to use, but I digress.
There is a discussion in the legislature abut what to do with this "surplus" that is kind of interesting. In general, the DFL legislators want to spend as much of it as possible, and the GOP wants to (in general) give it back to the taxpayers.
Governor Walz, wants to spend most of it and give taxpayers back $300 each.
Sidebar, it seems strange to not give people's money back in proportion to what they paid in, but this isn't about fair, it's about votes.
Walz wants to call these payments "Walz checks" as if he's benevolently giving us a gift. Now he probably wouldn't say this in public, but wouldn't it be reasonable to conclude that since there's an election coming up, and since he screwed up the riot response, that having checks with his name on them go out right before an election would be good publicity, doesn't it?
I have no problem returning this surplus to the taxpayers that paid it. I'm not sure that people who just moved here, or don't pay income taxes should be getting checks though. I also think that sending out "Walz checks" during an election campaign seems a little too much like vote buying for me.
I've got less problem if they did this as a tax credit based on the actual taxes people paid (which would probably cost less money).
I've got less problem with giving it all back, proportionately to what we've paid without the "Walz check" label.
Finally, I don't have much of a problem with using it to pay off debt, or put it in a lock box for the inevitable economic downturn.
Anything but something that looks like bribery or vote buying
2 comments:
A surplus indicates tax rates which are too high.
That's at least part of the cause. It could be (partly) due to population changes, people going back to work after the lock down, increase in construction to repair the carnage left by rioters, or other causes. Obviously, the GOP parts of the legislature are proposing tax cuts and giving the "surplus" back. The left seems to want to keep the status quo in terms of taxes, spend a bunch of money, and trickle back enough to "buy" Walz some votes.
Which is exactly what this who "forgive student loan debt" talk is. It's giving people other people's money (or devalued printed money) to get votes, even as it makes inflation worse.
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