Other States REPEALING Income Tax

John Seiler:

California used to be a trendsetter, from boogie boards to surf music. Now it’s a retrograde state. It’s going in the wrong direction.

Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing a massive income-tax hike. Others, such as leftist lawyer Molly Munger, are proposing even bigger income-tax hikes. Great way to kill jobs.

Other states are leading the way by moving to abolish their income taxes. Some already have: Texas, New Hampshire, Alaska, Washington, Nevada, South Dakota, Florida and Tennessee.

Now, under Gov. Mary Fallin, Oklahoma is working to be better than OK by phasing out out its income tax over the next decade.

Why can’t California get a governor like Mary Fallin? Why do we get a 1970s retread trying to bring back the Disco Decade?

The Wall Street Journal reports: “Maine, Nebraska, New Jersey and Ohio are debating income-tax cuts this year….

“The experience of states like Florida, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Texas also refutes the dire forecasts that eliminating income taxes will cause savage cuts in schools, public safety and programs for the poor. These states still fund more than adequate public services and their schools are generally no worse than in high-income tax states like California, New Jersey and New York.They have also recorded faster revenue growth to pay for government services over the past two decades than states with income taxes. That’s because growth in the economy from attracting jobs and capital has meant greater tax collections.”

Get that, tax increasers? When you cut taxes, you attract businesses. Businesses create jobs. The new businesses and jobs then generate more economic activity. The additional economic activity then generates more tax revenues, even at lower tax rates.

It’s true that some of the states — Alaska, Oklahoma and Texas — enjoy large revenues from oil and natural gas production. But as we reported here on CalWatchDog.com yesterday — here and here — California continues to repress energy development.

Our enviro-crazies, beginning with Brown, would rather kill off all energy-related jobs and drive the state into bankruptcy than scar Gaia, their earth goddess.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is working on phasing out his state’s 6.45 percent state income tax. A sensible fellow, he said: “Our goal is for our economy to look more like Texas, and a lot less like California.”

Tax-increase Gov. Brown vs. tax-cut Gov. Brownbeck. That’s what it comes down to.

Feb. 9, 2012