It’s no secret cities, counties and states across the nation are deep in the red and desperate to raise some cash….and that means raising taxes.
Everything from candy and soda to blueberries are being targeted. In Washington State they really want to soak it to Joe Six-pack with a proposal to TRIPPLE the beer tax!
Even though they’re not calling them “TAXES” – your local government is likely hard at work taking more money out of your pocket.
Jospeh Henchman from the Tax Foundation in Washington says,
“Americans have an historical antipathy towards taxes so politicans are always looking for ways to avoid being called a tax raiser, so one way to do that is to not raise taxes and another way to do that is call things non-taxes, call them fees.”
There’s been a hike in registration “fees” for retailers who sell noisemakers in West Virginia. And in Kentucky they’re proposing a additional “fees” on golf and hot air balloon rides. Other states are charging extra for visits to the hair salon and the bowling alley.
Tax advocates suggest that the sales tax is simply too narrow.
Lenny Goldberg of the Tax Reform Assoication says it had a commission on tax policy and pretty much everybody agreed that the sales tax wasn’t enough and the question was posed should they go heavily on services?
In fact the federal government is now taxing services.
Hidden in the new healthcare bill is a 10 percent tax on tanning salons. That’s expected to raise a whopping 2.7 billion dollars to help defray some of the costs associated with the healthcare legislation.
In Del Mar, California, the city council is asking voters to allow the 11.5 percent hotel tax to apply to summer cottage rentals.
The town’s mayor says every town has a way of extracting or getting expenses paid one way or another, “whether it’s sales tax or transient occupancy or parking or whatever it is we all have to pay our bills.” says Richard Earnest.
But even small fees can raise big money for your local government to spend. In the Golden State a proposed soda tax could raise an extra 1.5 billion dollars a year….and that’s hardly pocket change.