Eureka! I have the solution!
Posted by: Donna
Golf Tax
So this morning I did the special non-Sunday Square Off online edition.
http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/2010/01/15/20100115SundaySquareOff01172010-CR.html
It was Espresso Pundit and I discussing the budget crisis, Shadegg’s announcement and governor’s race for the most part. Greg did catch me in one error. I said Jan Brewer was Senate President when she was pushing tax cuts through in the 90s. I was mistaken, she was the majority whip when she was pushing tax cuts through in the 90s.
I pointed out (as I blogged about here recently) that Arizona has one of the most regressive state and local tax burdens in the U.S. I said that middle income Arizonans pay an average of 9.1% in state and local taxes while the richest Arizonans pay 4.6%. Greg shot back that low income people get more in government services. I reiterated that I was comparing middle income people to the richest. I very purposefully didn’t compare the poorest residents of Arizona (who pay 12% overall) to the richest. And the reason was that middle class people in Arizona are generally ineligible for food stamps or Medicaid. IOW, they don’t get anything out of the state and local government that the rich don’t get. I’d say they get less, considering they don’t have as much property to protect. So what’s so awesome about millionaires that they deserve to get such a huge tax break? And what could be done to bring in more revenue to the state and rectify that inequity in taxation?
Democratic legislators in the minority were thinking along these lines when they proposed broadening the sales tax base to include more services, in particular those that cater to the more affluent. Greg said that cigarette taxes, like those that fund First Things First, contribute greatly to regressiveness. I smoke, so I pay that tax. You’re welcome. Greg makes a fair point, but it can also be argued that there is a decided dearth of surtaxes on activities the rich enjoy – activities that are, arguably, as least as big a public nuisance as smoking.
Like golf. Golf courses use a lot of arable land and water, plus golfers are boring, annoying, and wear stupid clothes. It’s time to tax them. For the children.
I’m serious. And the skiiers are next.
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Love it! Plus, rich people get all kinds of things from the government, i.e., EZ access to stimulus funds.
I’ve written often that Brewer was the majority whip then, in fact I think I just wrote it on your FB page recently. See, you should listen to me ;-)
And I love a golf tax. Heck, I’d even be willing to pay an extra 50 cents every time I take my kids to play miniature golf (the only kind I ever play.) And make it more interesting: If you make a hole in one through that little windmill then you don’t have to pay the tax.
Never mind, it was Katie Hobbs’ FB page. I post to so many pages I lose track of what I wrote where.
Actually, how about a ‘per stroke’ tax? If you get a hole in one, you pay the least but if you have a really bad day your tax goes through the roof? I mean, the bad golfers are out there longer and use the course more, don’t they?
Donna,
” I said that middle income Arizonans pay an average of 9.1% in state and local taxes while the richest Arizonans pay 4.6%”
I am interested in how you arrive at these figures.
Alan, they’re from ITEP. http://www.itepnet.org/whopays.htm
i’ll have to remember not to mention the golf tax to my dad, who is finally coming ’round to seeing AZ politics through his progressive daughter’s lens. not that he’s one of those wealthy folks. heck, he might be all for it if it means keeping those thinking they can bend it like Tiger while boozing it up on the back nine from taking all the good tee times just to slow down play.
i suppose “bending it like Tiger” should have been “drive it like Tiger” but considering the recent sh–tuff surrounding Mr. Woods…I’ll leave it at “bend”….