Open Source Questions for Carney’s Budget “Reset” Meetings
I’m going to try and make one of Carney’s budget meetings next week and could use some pointed questions. Below are some inspired by a CassandraM post at Blue Delaware, but I could use some more if you have any.
>According to your own data, Bank Taxes have decreased why are banks getting lavished with tax breaks and contributing less, while you asking middle class and working families to carry more of the revenue burden?
>Why have Business Taxes have also decreased and franchise taxes look as though they are the same as last year? Why can’t the country’s most profitable companies, that reside here for our court system, pay their fair share?
>It is ludicrous that there is only one tax bracket for income over $60,000. Why do we have a flat tax?
>You say that our tax rates need to be competitive with nearby states, otherwise people will leave. That is not supported by any evidence. And furthermore PA and NJ’s property taxes are much higher, so shouldn’t we be raising our property taxes if parity is so important?
I think, and I’m serious, that Carney has been so inculcated by the propaganda of the Concord Coalition and the Third Way, that he needs a deprogramming. A Mind Enema, if you will.
The questions posed are valid ones, but only if you think that the vessel housing John Carney is capable of thought that transcends the cult-programmed processes controlling what at one time might (or might not) have been an inquisitive brain.
If John were to form a committee to tell him what he should be thinking and/or how to think, I’d gladly serve as a member. It’s pretty much the only committee he hasn’t formed.
Failing that, these meetings are window dressing. With Greg Lavelle along to provide that Spirit of Bipartisanship. I mean, Greg Bleeping Lavelle.
Yes. He is impervious to this kind of thing. The fix is most definitely in, but I’d love to get the fact that someone asked this stuff on the record.
Cassandra should write for DL. Make that happen
Yesterday I had to drive my daughter to school so I arrived at the Hockessin meeting just as a black SUV was pulling away, presumably with the governor inside. I waited to talk to Sokola but the line was too long so I left. Besides, I’ve talked enough with him already 🙂
I’ll try to make the next meeting. My mission is to let the governor know we have his back if he raises taxes. We know there will be some service cuts, but we can’t cut our way to prosperity and the pain needs to be shared. I wish more people would come to join me in this message. The main taxes to focus on are:
New bracket for upper incomes
Carney reportedly insists new revenue must come from economic growth, not tax increases. But Delaware’s economic growth is within historic norms. What’s NOT in historic norms is income qrowth. Since the Great Recession incomes of the 1% have risen 15%, while incomes for the rest of us declined 1.6%. Therefore taxes need to follow the money where it is. No, a modest tax increase won’t cause our top incomes to flee, as long as there is not a substantial differential with other states in total tax burden.
Franchise tax
Most people don’t know what the franchise tax is or how it is different from corporate income tax. Franchise tax applies to every corp registered in Delaware whether or not they do business in Delaware. If you don’t do business in Delaware, you don’t pay Delaware corporate income tax. The franchise tax is essentially the fee for access to Delaware business law and Chancery Court. A modest increase in franchise tax will not cause businesses to flee. Here’s more:
Gas tax
Nobody wants to pay more for gas, but also nobody wants traffic jams or potholes. Gas tax is the funding mechanism for roads and transportation, so raising the gas tax is the answer. I’ll also stipulate to funding reforms so that gas tax revenues must be used only for transportation needs.
Carney is your standard issue Delaware DINO, as such I doubt if a gun to his head would make him advocate a tax increase for the sacred rich as he doth genuflect before them. As for “the fix is in” isn’t it always “in” before the show gets started? Until one of our beloved DINOS gets a primary nothing will change.
“I doubt if a gun to his head would make him advocate a tax increase for the sacred rich”
Well there’s that, but there’s also another driver: fear of voters. Most voters will not process the fact that increases for upper incomes or franchise tax will not affect them, and political opponents will paint any tax increase as a tax increase on YOU. Or as a tax increase on your employer that will threaten YOUR job.
That is why it is important that voters in areas like Hockessin tell Carney and his senator du jour sidekick that it is OK to raise taxes and we will have his back if he does.
Carney will have NO problem pushing all the regressive taxes like cigarette taxes
( rumored to be an extra $1 a pack) and gas taxes (probably in the 7 to 9 cents a gallon range). Hurts the working poor and middle class a lot harder than well off folks.
I would support a 2% sales tax.
@puck: For 30 years now people have peddled the false information that tax increases are toxic to voters. In truth, voters consistently rank tasxes near the bottom of their list of concerns. Only well-off people pay enough to care about.
Any Democrat who says he’s afraid to raise taxes is really saying he’s too timid to hold office, and I agree with that.
At least Ken Simpler isn’t lying to me by pretending to represent the people’s interests. Simpler 2020.
Also, we should impose a statewide property tax, which would give the state some of the beach-resort windfall that currently goes to Sussex alone. We paid for all those roads, we should get some of the tax revenue to pay for it.
@AQC: You speak only for yourself. It would prove disastrous to retailers.
“voters consistently rank tasxes near the bottom of their list of concerns. Only well-off people pay enough to care about.”
That’s why I’m pissed I missed the meeting. I wanted to hear what people are actually saying about taxes.
@puck: Isn’t there another one next week in Hockessin?
The gas tax is a great idea for transportation needs. But hasn’t Delaware been ‘borrowing’ from the Transportation Trust Fund for other things? So there is a credibility gap.
The last 10 cent/gal. proposal by Markell was a sad roll-out from what I presume was a tired Gov. who just didn’t want to work anymore. He did the same thing with the Clean Water Initiative: Talk about then walk away. No follow-up. No sales effort. The gas tax should be sellable to the people if 1) It is ONLY used for its intended purpose: transportation. and 2) if you sell it as you won’t even fucking notice the increase. The gas tax proposal was 2.5 cents every year for 4 years I think. Gas has gone up almost a dime here at the beach in the last 2 weeks.
The State is also doing a pilot program where citizens will have to pay for the mileage they drive when they register their cars. That is a much much harder sell than 2 cents more at the pump.
Yes – http://governor.delaware.gov/budgetreset/
8:00 a.m. – February 21 – Drip Café, Hockessin, with Senator Greg Lavelle
8:00 a.m. – February 23 – Crossroads Restaurant, Kirkwood Highway, with Senator Jack Walsh and Representative Kim Williams
7:00 p.m. – March 16 – Thomas McKean High School, Wilmington, with Representatives Deborah Hudson, Joseph Miro and Mike Ramone
There’s also one in Dover, which will give us the chance to tell senator Bushweller what we think about his asinine and outdated position on minimum wage:
9:00 a.m. – February 22 – City Hall, Dover, with Senator Brian Bushweller & Representative Sean Lynn
These “listening tours” are just a PR game. Once he introduces his budget, then he should go out and take some serious feedback on it as well…. Will see if he does or just adopts a bunker mentality once it all hits the fan!
BTW we need one more sign up to meet this week’s goal. Be the person who puts us over the top!
Put in your $25.00 pledge. You’ll only be charged if and when a viable candidate files to primary John Carney.
The gas tax will have to be raised a heck of a lot more than 5-10 cents per gallon to keep up with infrastructure needs. Cars and trucks are increasingly getting higher MPG and electric vehicles are now a realistic option (see Chevy Bolt. Made in America. Never have to go to a gas station ever again or get an oil change!). With electric vehicle drivers essentially becoming “free riders”, we will eventually have to transition to a fee/mile driven to maintain our roadway system. Delaware is actually forward thinking on this. A small gas tax increase in the meantime may be a good bridge, but I think it would have a disproportionate impact on middle and lower income folks.
Bring on tax increases for folks making over 60k!! I’m in this category, and I am happy to pay more so that our prisons are safe for everyone, our air is clean, our students are educated and yadda yadda.
“With electric vehicle drivers essentially becoming “free riders”, we will eventually have to transition to a fee/mile driven to maintain our roadway system. ”
Light passenger vehicles should pay a very small fee. User fees for driving heavy trucks on our highways should be increased until it becomes cheaper to put the freight back on the railroads where it belongs.
Also, higher fees by weight for oversized passenger vehicles like SUVs and pickup trucks.
Yes to all of that.
I hear low class whites call into the local hate radio station advocating repealing the estate tax. Guess they don’t realize that inheriting a trailer won’t put them over the 2.5 million that is exempted