The wheels of the car go 'round and 'round

They're having trouble paying for the schools here in Washington County, TN so they decided to put a fund raising measure on the primary ballot. When I say "fund raising measure" what I mean is they want us to vote on a tax, specifically it's a wheel tax and the powers that be in our county want to use that money for education.

I was surprised that they allowed us to vote on this in the first place, they usually impose such things on us by fiat and then say "Pay up or else!" What also surprised me was the fact they floated the idea of a wheel tax at all. Most people in the surrounding counties where I live routinely vote these kinds of taxes down and I expect we'll do the same thing here. I know I voted against it. But I didn't vote against it because I hate the little kiddies in schools. I voted against it becasue it is another in a long line of regressive taxes they want to foist on us.

You see folks, here in TN we have no income tax. What we have instead is one of the highest sales taxes in the nation. And it goes up almost every year. The last time they raised it they said they had to do it to pay for TennCare, our states one time version of Medicaid, but then the gutless politicians in Nashville gutted TennCare and they tossed all people off it except for children under the age of 18 and expectant mothers. Now, did the gutless wonders in Nashville give us back our tax increase once we no longer had TennCare? Nope. They continued to stick it to us and more specifically stick it to the poor and working class people of this state.

The poor and worknig class pay a high percentage of taxes under a sales tax only system. The rich and high income earners pay a far lower percentage of their earnings in taxes while reaping more rewards the state offers, such as tax breaks for businesses and tax breaks on the purchase of big ticket items like cars and homes. The sales tax rates are configured differently in this state for big ticket items because the state knows that if the rates were the same on expensive items, like cars and such, as they are for groceries and everyday items then people, especially people like Sparky and I who live near the Virginia and North Carolina borders, would buy those big ticket items out of state to avoid paying such high sales taxes.

This wheel tax business they are trying to get us to vote for says that any person who owns a vehicle with four wheels must pay a $50 a year fee. Some of you are saying, "That's not much to pay." Well if you drive one of these, it's not:
But if you drive a beat up one of these:
Hell yes it is too much to pay.

In this area where everything is spread out you must have a car to get around and to get by and this wheel tax would unfairly impinge more heavily on the already over taxed poor and working classes. Once again they'd be asked to pay a higher percentage of taxes than the wealthier citizens of this county. And I know damn well that the schools that would benefit the most from the tax would be the ones in the cities and not the ones that need it most, the ones in the outlying rural areas.

So if this wheel tax loses, which I expect it to do, whatever shall we do to fund our schools? They've already raised our property taxes, and we already pay city and county taxes here at El Casa de Monkey, and that's in addition to those scandously high sales taxes we pay too. Until we have a state budget meltdown they will never ever approve an income tax in Nashville. So again, I ask, whatever shall we do? Where shall all that money come from to pay for our schools?

Well, I'm glad you asked. Here's my idea, we pass a tax on the square footage of every business in the county, and why stop there? I say we institute a tax on the square footage of every business in our state. Here's how my idea would work:

• Every business, big and or small across the state pays a yearly tax of one dollar per square foot of their buisness. This would mean that businesses that are huge, like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, hospitals, etc, would pay far more in taxes than small Mom and Pop businesses.

That's it. The big boys, for once, pay more in taxes than the small businesses. We use that money to fund schools and to make other community improvements. Some of you might say, "That will kill business! The big corporations will just pack up and leave if you tax them like that." Bull shit, of course they won't. What they'll do in fact is to try to open more stores or hospitals or whatever in order to make up for the revenues that thay are now paying in taxes. And of course some of them would raise their prices to offset the tax increase on their business, some people will of course pay the increased prices but some will shop elsewhere at stores that choose to make a little less profit and to be a better community partner.

Of course I am under no illusion that my plan will ever be adopted in this state because like their counterparts in the US Congress, our legislators in Nashville are in the pockets of every coroporate lobbyist who ever put on a pair of loafers or high heels and walked the halls of power. They'll continue to put the wants and alleged needs of big business ahead of the citizens of this state for as long as we have this corrupt political and economic system.