Top-notch editorial in this morning's Salt Lake Tribune, lamenting Monday's "thumbs-up" State Senate vote on Sen. J. Start Adams' meat-headed Senate Bill 270, which "shift[s] the [food tax] burden from [the Senate's] own overloaded brains to the overburdened shoulders of Utah’s poor and working classes." Here's the full editorial for those who'd like to read up:
Being the curious type, we Googled. And for our equally curious WCF readers, here's the list of State Senators who voted "aye" on the bill and failed to "accept the heavy lifting of budget-balancing themselves, rather than tak[ing] the easy way out by dumping it onto a great many families who cannot fight back."
Take careful and indelible note, Gentle Readers. Three Weber County Senators, Christensen, Jenkins and Reid are prominent among this cold-hearted and short-sighted group.
"Perhaps more political leadership will be found in the House... or the governor’s office," as the SLTrib editorial board gently suggests.
Update 3/3/11 6:17 a.m.: The Salt lake Tribune now reports that
"[o]pponents of doubling the sales tax on food won a surprising victory Wednesday, persuading a committee to kill — by one vote — the House version of the proposal." "But more battles loom" with Sen. Adams' aforementioned SB270, which still needs to have a stake driven through its heart, as the House enters the last 7 days of the 2011 legislative session:
7 comments:
Hey, Rudi, show a little compassion. The Senators were running a little late and so could not take the time to consider their actions or they'd have been late to their next lobbyist-paid-for free meal.
What happens when there is no money to give to the people who have no money? That is the moral question. It's fine to say that the old people should have saved more, they should have worked an extra job, they should have done without cable TV, they should have invested more wisely. Saying that doesn't change the fact that there will be old people who do not have money. These old people will believe that they need food and shelter and medical care.
Will they get it? At the arch-plutocrats' end of things, the Koch brothers' end, the end occupied by the most devout worshippers of Ayn Rand, the answer is: no. That's the goal. It's long since time for the sloppy, implicit, badly supported social contract to go away. Rich people have been trimming their contribution to the general revenue for decades now. They are not interested in paying the premium that keeps old people and ailing people or just backward people out of the streets. If the day comes that they have to travel to and from their various compounds in armored helicopters, they can afford the helicopters. It's not their problem.
Does anyone remember the uncollected and delinquent property tax statewide every year to the tune of over $100 million dollars? The State and Counties refuse to close this scofflaw haven to protect large businesses and large property owners, so everyone else pays more taxes. Thank you Utah legislature!
Weber County Senator Christensen, Jenkins and Reid are all rich bastards, Rudi.
WTF did you expect of these rich and totally out of touch morons?
Well, taxes on food is often the only money paid into the government by some of these very large families that put such a strain on the whole system, especially the schools. A lot of them have so many deductions that they don't pay any income taxes which is where most of the education money comes from.
Seems to me that tax on food is fair if it is the only taxes paid by the large families and the poor - both which draw disproportionately on government services. If they are that poor they get food stamps and food bank access anyway.
IN re: the update. It is possible the Reps phones have been lighting up with constituents calling in to complain about doubling the tax on food. This one hits close to home for a lot of people.
Going to be interesting watching the arm twisting and wheeling/dealing on the Senate version now. Very interesting.
The fact is, property taxes are a serious part of education funding, why aren't the rest of you interested in the delinquent property taxes that are dodged every year in this state to the tune of over 100 million dollars?
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