The state of Oregon can be a powerful machine if everything is working together. The people are the pistons, gears, and electrical that takes us forward. But we have odds and ends yet to be put in place; so Oregon continues at a slow crawl towards progress. Every year Oregon falls short of managing its budget. The tax laws focus on people who are working and own property. These tax laws do not include everyone and in turn, makes us poor. Oregon needs a sales tax of five percent. If the state of Oregon creates the sales tax, we can equally lower income and property tax. This way Oregonians can still fund the state with the support of visitors and people that try to avoid tax laws. The sales tax would exempt medication and store bought foods. …show more content…
The majority of state revenue is based on income and property tax. By taxing only those who are working causes more stress on the individuals who are trying to make a living. The sales tax would make buying unnecessary items equally harder for everyone. However, those who are working will have more money to buy these items; this is thanks to dropping the income and property tax. People who live off the government will either have to save up longer or find more steady income. Some would say the poor cannot afford a price raise to sustain themselves. Also much of Oregon tends to the elderly; they can’t afford higher medical bills living off social security. A sales tax, by design would exempt medial and bought foods. This way, the price change would not affect the poor and or elderly in their ability to buy food and …show more content…
Oregonians have vetoed the proposition of a sales tax seven times since the early two thousands. The change has to be seen as appealing enough to where more voters will back the bill. Oregon can’t drop either property or income taxes on blind faith that a sales tax will later be admitted. The amount of money lost through dropping a tax can be equally raised by sales tax. Losing more money is a fear in the people that should be regarded. Every future purchase is a reminder that they are paying a little bit more because of a tax. This fact tends to be a troubling thought for people. If a law was to add a dollar fifty to each item a person buys. Then the drop in property and income should equal that dollar fifty or give a little more. Lowering both property and income taxes to the United States average of about five percent, allows a person about two dollars and forty cents more for each item. Dropping income and property tax will make up a sales tax difference. But let’s say in a single year Oregon generates more money than its estimated need due to sales tax. The kicker law, causes the remainder of Oregon revenue to be returned to Oregon residents through the tax refund. So tourism and visitors could enhance our money flow long after they have
According to the data obtain from the United States Census Bureau; the state of Texas received the amount of $ 24,500,909 in sales tax revenue in the year 2012, Tennessee $6,512,352, and Utah $1,857,055. The sale tax in Texas percentage is “6.25 % to 8.25% depending on the local cities; Tennessee charges “7%, but the number can vary from 1% to 2.75 %”; Utah is “4.70% to 7.95%. Texas population is approximately 26,06 million; Utah 2,855 million, and Tennessee is 6,456 million by 2012; These numbers show that the state of Texas is bigger in size and population than Tennessee and Utah; however the sales taxes revenue is lower han Tennessee, but higher than Utah’s.
Proposition 30 (prop 30 or SB11) is supported by the schools and local public safety protection Act of 2012. Prop 30 is a tax initiative led by California governor Jerry Brown. Prop 30 is aimed at reducing forecasted budget cuts to public schools also higher education, by increasing the California sales tax from 7.25% to 7.50%for the next four years. It also will create three new tax brackets for taxable incomes. Incomes exceeding $250,000, $300,000 and $500,000 will pay more in taxes for the next seven years. With the extra money being saved will go towards adding more classes for higher education students. Also to help reduce California’s state budget, prop 30 should raise $6 billion annually form raised taxes.
California's Proposition 13 had a big impact on American government and public policy because it put to vote the reduction of property taxes. This Proposition had a great impact as it swept the county and made headlines in newspapers around the world. People used this initiative process to gain a greater control over their lives. The California taxpayers stood up and said no more to excessive taxes because they were tired of out of control property taxes and losing their homes because they could not pay property taxes while the government did nothing to help them. This in turn hurt the schools, cities, counties and special districts. From this proposition, we have a few others like proposition 218 and proposition 37.
Should the American tax system remain the same, where individuals’ income is taxed based on how much one makes with loopholes and deductions? Should we consider a system that would eliminate progressive income taxes, taxing everyone at an equal rate through the Flat Rate Tax, or should taxes be collected through national consumption of retail goods and the Fair Tax System? Our current system of taxation is a varied percentage rate based on different income brackets. Many say that it violates our constitutional rights through unequal taxation. Multiple deductions, loopholes, special rates, and a complex system of regulations all characterize our Federal Income Tax System, prompting many to question why it is still being used (Peters, 2013).
The tax policy in the United States is very confusing. When the tax policy was originally written in 1913 it was four hundred pages. Now, over the past ninety one years, that tax policy has evolved to over 72,000 pages. Since the tax code has become so lengthy and nearly impossible to understand, the topic of tax reform has been in the minds of many. Although, most barely think about tax reform until tax season. It is a controversial subject due to the impact a change in tax code would have on the American people. The two most popular and widely known stakeholders in this debate are the two major political parties in the United States, the Democrats and the Republicans. The two parties share absolutely no common ground on the subject of tax reform, other than thinking the other parties solution is wrong. The Democrats, in general, want to raise taxes on the wealthy, while Republicans, generally, want to cut taxes for everyone (Democratic Party) (GOP). Unfortunately, with the United States economy currently doing so poorly, the parties can no longer afford to remain at a standstill, some sort of compromise is going to have to be made. The implementation of a flat tax, and discarding the current tax system would be a compromise that both parties can agree on and will simplify the tax code, overall benefiting all Americans.
To reiterate, the current tax system is thought to be regressive because the tax system does not provide a balance for those with high income and those with low; however, this can be fixed by adopting some aspects of a state with progressive features. For instance, the state of California as a much better tax system than Texas because they have a “graduated personal income tax structure and provides personal income tax credits in place of personal and dependent exemptions” (“California”). If Texas adopted these two characteristics into their tax system this will began to progress because some of the faults in the present Texas tax system is the lack of personal income tax structure and it does not not provide tax credits to low-income taxpayers to offset other expenses. Making these few changes will help Texas greatly; however, making this change will be difficult because the state is comfortable with the tax system they have. Texas does not care to alter the tax system much because although it is weak, it does not take too much away from the overall economic success the state
...state politicians need to wake up and smell the dry aired air, and begin to work together for new laws that apply to the supply and demand of today, not yesterday.
Oregon's pioneer spirit has continued on through the years in many ways that have influenced the rest of the country. Citizens are supportive of the environment, cultural affairs and a life style that combines urban conveniences with the wonders of our wilderness. Oregon has a beloved place in the lives of its residents and they enjoy sharing their history, products and beauty with others.
Not having a state income tax has many political implications. Many people claim not having a state income tax means their is no state government in the people's business this appeals to people with conservative values. People with these types of values lean toward Republicans, they like small government control over their money. While others end up keeping more of their money, they still are not able to afford the increasing average cost of living. Making lean towards the Democratic Party, because they like programs that help out low income level
When states try to find ways to restrain from non-essential areas, unfunded federal mandates are at the top of the list. These mandates often force state and local governments to spend much more than necessary on everything from medical care to welfare to road building. A complex web of federal programs bind together the tree treasuries of the local, state, and federal government. As much as 25 percent of state budgets now comes from the federal government, and up to 60 percent of some state budgets is spent on joint federal-state programs.
Taxation has always been a major controversy. Just like any major corporation, the government is constantly looking to raise revenue. The easiest and fairest way to do this is by taxing the people. However, how the people will be taxed is always an issue.
Mark Bittman’s article, “Taxing Sugar to Fund a city,” emphasizes that on one hand, the taxation of sugar sweetened beverages would be a bonus. On the other hand it could continue to not be supported by the people and government. Taxation of sugar sweetened beverages is being considered in many different places throughout the world. The taxation was becoming a failure everywhere, until it worked for the first time in several cities. Cites such as Northern California, San Francisco, Albany and Richmond. These cities opened up their ideas to this new type of taxation, once those places became supportive many others begin to also be supportive of this new taxation. Philadelphia plans to use the taxes received for the needy, community schools, public parks, recreation centers and libraries. Some cities support using the money this way rather than using the tax for safe free drinking water like in Berkley and Mexico. Taxed products
Colorado is the latest state to approve the sale of marijuana for recreational use. This topic has been tossed around by the officials for years now. Legislators in Colorado have “considered excise and sales taxes on marijuana of up to 30 percent combined” (Frosch, 2013). With the rapidly growing market and marijuana industry, rules and regulations had to be put into place. Even this tax charge needs to be implemented and enforced.
In this scenario, I am an English teacher and a novelist in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The sales tax in this state is 7%. My gross income is $55, 050 with my teaching job. This number was reached because it was the national average income of a high school teacher in 2012. With this number, I fit into the tax bracket of “over $36, 900 but not over $89, 350.” With this tax bracket, an individual deducts $5,081.25 plus 25% of the excess over $36, 900 (IRS tax brackets, 2014). With these stipulations, the amount deducted from my annual paycheck was $9, 816, leaving my net income at $45, 432 annually. When the number was divided into the 12 months, it left $3, 786 dollars to work with each month.