Cut the Income Tax! Raise the Sales Tax! Lower and Raise Property Taxes!

By Steve Poftak
January 2nd, 2009

Hey, its not my idea. It’s a proposal floated by a consultant to the the Readiness Project, tucked in an appendix to the Readiness Finance Commission, released on New Year’s Eve (see “Beware the Doldrums“).

To quote from the appendix itself:

1. Increase the burdens of state-level general sales taxes by 25 percent and state-level selective sales taxes by 60 percent.
2. Create a local-level general sales tax with a burden of $2.00 per $1,000 of personal income.
3. Decrease state-level personal income taxes by 15 percent and state-level corporate income taxes by 10 percent.
4. Decrease local-level property taxes by 10 percent but create a state-level property tax with a burden of about $1.50 per $1,000 of personal income.
5. Increase state-level motor vehicle taxes by 50 percent.

I’ll let someone else run on this platform. It is an interesting (and politically suicidal) mix of ideas. I have not heard anyone connected (or unconnected) to the Administration speak of anything close to this, so I found it intriguing that it made into the report.