Gas Taxes

[Gayla]

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor

Gayla, I have to apologize. I wasn't directing my rant at your post; it was just a jumping off point.

I'm frustrated with the tea whiners complaining about being over-taxed, I'm fed up to here with CA republican state representatives fucking over everyone during budget season because they refuse to tax, I'm disgusted with conservative candidates who campaign to lower taxes, I'm over corporations being given tax breaks for moving their businesses offshore, and I've had it with the off-shore tax havens where our financial leaders stash their cash tax-free.

It's not the people in the lower tax brackets working their asses off just to get every penny hit with FICA (while high-wage earners quit paying after the first 100K-ish in wages) and pay a larger percentage of income on sales tax and gas tax and the other taxes and can't even get a break because they can't afford a big mortgage to get that tax credit. It's not the small businesses struggling to do the right thing and playing by the rules. It's the 6 to 12 figure earners and large corporations who get the breaks and fork over tons of money to twist tax code in their favor and pay less effective tax and yet still whine.

*quite possibly end of rant, at least for now*

I didn't think your rant was at me.

I totally agree with all of this, in both of your posts. The piece about the home buyer's tax credit hits homes because I spent months working with people who wanted to take advantage of that but couldn't get approved. Most of them were responsible adults with decent paying jobs and decent credit but our housing market up here is so whacked that the only homes they could afford wouldn't pass the muster for loan approval. I actually deal with this every day. There are so many opportunities like this that most folks will just never get.

A few year's back, the company I worked for moved from one city to another within the same county. We had to move because we had outgrown the current facility and didn't have room to expand. One of the main reasons they choose the new site was the tax incentives provided by the local government. They reduced the amount of local taxes we had to pay because our expansion brought more jobs to the area. These jobs were primarily seasonal, just above minimum wage and considered unskilled general labor positions. So the company contributed less to the local infrastructure because they paid 50-75 people $10 an hour for 4 months out of the year. I can't help but think the city got the raw end of that deal.