Posts Tagged ‘taxes’

We’re Winning the Race to the Bottom

Monday, February 1st, 2010

We’re Winning the Race to the Bottom
by
David Schlecht

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Nevada’s budget outlook is so bleak that lawmakers doubt whether state government can remain afloat without drastic cuts to everything from prisons to schools to state parks and services for the poor and elderly.

Legislators met Tuesday with Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons to discuss how they will cope with a short-term deficit of about $900 million during an upcoming special session of the Legislature. Some Democratic lawmakers acknowledge options to bridge the gap probably won’t include tax increases.
…
Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, said pay cuts and layoffs for state employees are probably inevitable.

“These are drastic, drastic cuts. I would be surprised if some folks didn’t lose their jobs,” Oceguera said.
…
Taylor said such a cut would hit lower-wage employees extremely hard, especially because some lower-paying jobs are held by single parents raising children. There had been talks that salary cuts would be made only to employees earning more than $40,000 a year.

Oceguera was uncertain whether it would be considered “a socialist type thing” to tailor pay cuts according to earnings.

A Chamber of Commerce study released earlier this month found state and local government employees in 2008 earned an average pay of $55,657 in 2008, sixth highest among states and $6,800 higher than the national average. For state employees alone, the average pay was $55,266.

Teacher pay in Nevada averaged $48,257 a year in 2008, below the $50,852 national average, according to the chamber study. University and community college faculty members in Nevada earn $69,282 on average, compared with the national average of $72,959.

The study also found that Nevada has the fewest number of public employees on a per capita basis in the country, at 43.7 per 1,000 residents.

But Gibbons, who sets the agenda for the session, has long said he would veto any tax increases.

“Our only real option,” Horsford said, “is to eliminate or reduce spending.”

This is absolutely shocking. Gibbons is leading us in a race to the bottom.

Nevada state and local government employees get paid more than the average. That means the local employees get paid more than the average and the state employees get paid considerably less than average. But, that’s not what the Chamber of Commerce says since they might have a little difficulty being objective in this matter. What on earth are they even involved for? They’re the enemy and part of what made our current mess.

This seems so terribly obvious to any casual observer to be a race to the bottom. Nevada has been groveling at the bottom of everything important for so long, we just don’t know what to do if we’re not dead last. We seem to be winning the race to be the first state to resemble Haiti. Let’s all compete to see how low we can pay our state employees. Soon we’ll all be greeted by illegal aliens at the state agencies because they’ll work for less than Americans will. Is that what we want in America?

They’re afraid to affect the rich more than the poor because they’re afraid it’ll sound Socialist? This has to be about the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in a while. When was it considered Socialist to expect those who benefit the most from society to pay the most? Socialist? If this is Socialism, then America’s founding fathers were all Socialists. They expected everyone to pay their fair share. Shame on you for disparaging the names of our forefathers!

And, if you were paying attention, Nevada is paying our educators well below the average. Obviously we’re dead last in education. We only get back what we’re willing to invest. We should be having a race to see how much more money we can put back in the hands of the middle and lower class and we should be expecting the wealthy to start paying their fair share.

Gibbon, oh what a fine example of Republican principles. No new taxes. We wouldn’t want the billionaires to pay their fair share, now would we? No, let’s just take it out of the pockets of those who need it the most.

When will America start to realize that this Republican approach is destroying our country?

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 2 Comments »

The Pride of the Republican Party

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

The Pride of the Republican Party
by
Captain Jack

I get Tea Bagger email occasionally and it is never a disappointment. No wonder these poor deluded souls vote for Palin and still cling to the Republican party. There’s something seriously wron. Check out some the of the best for this week. This is from their touted expert on all thing tea-baggery:

Why? We have intentionally dumbed down our schools,
ignored our history, and no longer teach our
founding documents, why we are exceptional, and
why we are worth preserving. Students by and
large cannot write, think critically, read, or
articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers
are not picketing, school boards continue to
back mediocrity. Why?

Why? I”ll tell you why we’ve destroyed our education system and why we’re continuing to do so. Because the Republican party and the tea-baggers don’t want to have taxes to pay for a first-world country. Without a populous willing to pay tax dollars for a good country you end up with a Republican paradise, no taxes and a country like Somalia. Everyone but the tea baggers knows Reagan was wrong and government isn’t the problem. Lack of government is.

we have elected a man that no one really knows
anything about, who has never run so much as a
Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla
, Alaska . All of his associations and alliances
are with real radicals in their chosen fields of
employment, and everything we learn about him,
drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright
scary

Scary? Are the Republicans really so easily scared? No wonder they over reacted to 9/11 and gave Bin Laden everything he could have dreamed of. It’s time they became a little braver. But let’s get back to the point of not knowing who Obama is.

This author is correct, the Republicans have no idea whatsoever who Obama is. That’s because their news sources don’t tell them anything other than second-grade-level sound bytes. Please, turn off your TV for a few moments a day and actually try to find out what is going on in the world.

Obama is a constitutional scholar, an expert in thing that matter to America. Why weren’t you out there revolting against Bush? What did you know about him? Did he ever EVER run a successful business? Was he in bed with the Arabs? Was his crowning moments when he was a cheer leader or when her was AWOL from the military? We know a lot about Obama and about Bush. Just open your eyes.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Politics | Comments Off

Conservative Bankrupt Policies

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Conservatives’ Bankrupt Policies
by
David Schlecht

Nevada’s governor, Jim Gibbons, is your typical Republican politician. He has joined the cult swearing allegiance to “no new taxes” when it is supposed to be allegiance to the state of Nevada. In fact, Nevada has been almost strictly Republican for decades and when not strictly Republican their governor has still been a conservative Democrat.

And, what has this voting record brought to Nevada? As stated in an earlier post, we’re first in discouraged voters, last in education, first in bankruptcies, almost worst in unemployment, and almost last in most other indicators of a first world state.

One would think that even the really bone headed would eventually get tired of sticking their tongues on the frozen flag pole, but Nevada proves that there is no end to the stream of illogical voting.

Gibbons swears “no new taxes” while the rich get away without paying their fair share and the middle class get straddled with supporting the lazy stingy or just unethical rich. The only solution Gibbons has for fixing the state’s tax revenue shortfall is to take it out of the budgets of the state workers.

The first string of cuts stole 5% from the paychecks of every Nevada civil servant and in most cases, over a thousand dollars in benefits. For anyone who knows anything about state pay scales, you know that state employees are generally paid considerably less than employees in the private sector.

By “considerably less” I mean it is common to see state employees getting 20% less than similar jobs in the private sector. One of the few reasons why employees agree to work for such low wages is that benefits can make up for the difference.

I’m not talking about benefits that the state pays for as much as I’m saying a large employer can self insure its employees. Once the employer controls the insurance, they can control the costs and avoid the problem with unethical insurance companies dropping coverage for people when they need it.

So, Gibbon’s first round of cuts was on the backs of the state workers. Today he says he’s planning to steal more money from hard working Nevadans while chanting the cult mantra, “no new taxes”.

If you don’t expect the wealthy to pay their fair share, you end up with a state like Nevada and a country like the USA.

When will Nevada and the rest of America realize that conservative policies are destroying America.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Politics | 2 Comments »

Shrinking Tax Dollars

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

Shrinking Tax Dollars
by
Captain Jack

Expanding on David’s great post about Welfare for the Rich, I see services in our state shrinking and drying up. Snow plows are just one of numerous examples. Our entire country has been seeing infrastructure crumbling around us which is a direct result of lower tax revenues caused by tax breaks for the billionaires. Reagan’s and Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy are destroying our once-great country.

And, that was before the Bush recession.

Now that we’re suffering further reduction in tax revenue, the services we are paying for with yours and my tax dollars are shrinking. We’re getting less for our money. But, your taxes aren’t going down and neither are mine. So all you smart readers out there are probably wondering where your tax dollars are going since your services are being curtailed.

We’re seeing services stripped for the middle class and the needy but the services for the wealthy are still being provided, now, out of our tax dollars. That means there’s less left over to provide services to the real tax payers.

It is time to start expecting the wealthy to start paying their fair share.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Finance, Politics | 1 Comment »

More Examples of Welfare for the Rich

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

More Examples of Welfare for the Rich
by
David Schlecht

This week I’ve seen a scenario played out in Nevada that I’m sure most Americans will recognize in their their own neighborhoods. In Nevada, we’ve had a week of cold and snow, the same cold and snow affecting most of the country about now. So what have we noticed during this weather?

In Nevada, the ability of the towns to clear the snow has been greatly diminished, mostly because of budget cuts. Many of the businesses are paying fewer taxes and the rich have been paying fewer taxes for 30 years now, and the tax revenues are drying up, so the civic services, like snow removal, are greatly reduced. But, who is getting the services and who is not? Look around your town and you will notice what I see here in Nevada.

The businesses get plowed first, followed by the wealthy neigborhoods. And, if at all, the middle class and lower class neighborhoods get plowed last. Is this because businesses and the rich pay a higher percentage tax than the real Americans? Of course, not, they’re paying considerably less. Corporations now pay less than 7% of the country’s tax burden. Who pays the rest? You and I do. The Rich have seen insane tax breaks over the last 30 years, down form 92% to as low as 15% in most cases.

How much do you pay? 25%? 30%? 35%? Include your income tax and your property tax and your sales taxes and you can bet you’re paying a higher percentage than the corporations or the rich. So, aren’t you glad that your neighborhoods aren’t getting plowed but theirs are?

Isn’t it time to start getting enraged by this theft? Isn’t it time to say enough?

The Tea-Baggers have it right. Something stinks in America and we have to get motivated to get it fixed. Unfortunately for the Tea-Baggers, though, nobody is telling them that it’s the rich that are stealing their money so they think it’s the Mexicans or the Liberals or the illegal aliens to blame. But, eventually they will realize, and we all need ot be ready to stand beside them and demand that this mess get fixed. Or better yet, it’s time we stood up ourselves and let the Tea-Baggers join us. Get motivated!

NO MORE WELFARE FOR THE WEALTHY!

Rate This Article:

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Tags: ,
Posted in Finance, General, Politics | 8 Comments »