Nickel and Dimed: Why Higher Taxes Might Make Tennessee Freer
While waiting to pass a car emissions test the other day, I began to question the wisdom of not having a state income tax. As a child of libertarians, I have always equated low taxes with a certain kind of economic freedom. Low taxes mean more money in your pocket to follow Ivy League dreams, invest in new technology or spend on liquor and Vegas showgirls. It’s your paycheck, you earned it, and you should be able to spend it as you see fit. When I moved to the Volunteer State, I bragged to my smug Yankee liberal friends that I was going to a place where economic freedom was so sacrosanct, they had full on tax revolts.
Then I got here.
You can’t drive too fast in Tennessee because revenue-starved towns and counties have turned their police departments into ticket-writing cash machines. A former colleague of mine at the Scene was pulled over four times in less than one year(!) for speeding between East Nashville and our office in the Gulch. And then there is the DUI situation. And the fishy yellow lights downtown. More than a few Metro cops have told me that top brass is constantly agitating for more traffic stops because that generates revenue.
Which brings me back to the emissions test. Most of the cars in line with me that day last week were built in the last 10 years—and many in the last five—meaning that they run pretty clean from an emissions standpoint. My own car is extremely efficient, high-mileage and low emissions. Why then, do I have to sit in that line every 12 months? Because the state and city need money to operate and they’re not getting it from my paycheck. As a result, I have to spend an afternoon waiting in that emissions line and then driving to the DMV, where I’ll have to cough up more than $70, the most I’ve had to pay to re-register my car in any of five states I’ve lived in. Of course I could register online, but that would cost an extra $5.99. How does running around all day in service of state requirements equal liberty?
Perhaps the time and money we spend on things like emissions tests, speeding tickets and DUI litigation is less than what we would spend on a state income tax. I doubt it. But after years of living like this, I find all of the nickel and dime-ing tiresome and intrusive. Every time I tap my breaks at one of the three speed traps between my home and office, or cut a check for a petty fee to feed this beast of a state government—or Metro for that matter—I feel more antagonized and less free.
Comments
You pay for state/federal funding one way or another.
If taxes are lower, the cost of everything else will just increase to compensate.
Sometimes, I think it would be better to pay a flat rate up front, than stand in line all day to find out the cost of a car tag has gone up $10 or $20.
Ultimately, we will pay one way or another. We all just disagree on WHEN we have to pay for it--up front(liberals) or an adjusted price (conservatives).
Posted 08/07/2008 at 03:11:53 PMI don't know if you're on to something or not, PJ. Maybe you should just slow down a little. :)
Posted 08/07/2008 at 03:18:41 PM"You pay for state/federal funding one way or another."
That is so on point. Unless we're willing to do away with basic services--like schools and medical regulation--we are going to have to fund the gov't. I just think the way we do it here ends up costing us more. Don't even get me started on how the sales tax on things like baby food (baby food!)adversely effects the poorest among us.
Posted 08/07/2008 at 03:18:47 PMStay in Tennessee, and particularly in Nashville, and you will realize why the state income tax is such an inherently stupid idea. You would still have the nickle and diming and an income tax and the sorriest public services in the world if we imposed a state income tax of 99 percent. Until deadweight and light weights like the Bredesens, Purcells, Ramseys, any thing on our school board, name a name from either party, are shown the door on a permanent basis, the only way to control government is to force it to survive on as little as possible.
Posted 08/07/2008 at 04:04:44 PMWe already have a state income tax.
It's just not a tax on wage income.
It is the Hall tax on dividend and interest income.
Second you are talking about things being paid for and fees collected by different levels of government. A state income tax is not going to incentivize local governments to quit writing speeding tickets.
And then there is the whole issue that a lot of the activities that taxes are collected for are not actual "services" at all - they are merely transfer payments out of the pocket of one set of citizens and into the pockets of another set of them.
Furthermore, there is no direct connection between those who ARE getting services and those who are financing them. Government services are not charged out on a user fee basis (as they should be).
No one's income is "service" provided to them by the government.
Posted 08/07/2008 at 04:36:28 PMHey PJ, why do you hate America?
Posted 08/07/2008 at 09:42:45 PMWhy do you hate freedom?
Posted 08/08/2008 at 07:39:30 AMEvidently poor PJ can't read or he would know his annual license renewal form advises he can receive his renewal by mail for a measly buck.
Posted 08/08/2008 at 10:03:50 AMI tried to renew by mail last year and my stickers never arrived. The result? Tickets!
Posted 08/08/2008 at 11:41:58 AMThen you have truly pissed off someone at the clerk's office. I (and hundreds of thousands of others) have successfully renewed by mail, both stickers and metal tags, for over thirty years. Apologize to someone!
Posted 08/08/2008 at 01:43:21 PMI once had a client based in Portland, Oregon that was talking about moving its corporate headquarters to Nashville. After a miniature mutiny in which almost every employee in the HQ said they would quit rather than move, the CEO tried to argue about what a great, livable city Nashville is. The employees said that it wasn't Nashville they didn't like, but that they didn't want the perceived TAX INCREASE. Again, the CEO asked what in the world they were talkng about. Overall taxes in Nashville, Tennessee are much lower than here, he argued, not to mention the price of real estate. They replied that was only true before one considers the extra $30,000 per year they would have to pay to put 2 kids through private school, because they believed Nashville doesn't (or "didn't" - it was quite a few years ago) provide a viable public school option. Up there, they could send their kids to public school and get a college prep education. (I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what they said) They felt they couldn't do that here, and they saw the tuition as effectively an additional tax related to living in Nashville.
I'm not sure where that takes me regarding the above issues. It's just something I found curious. Good article PJ.
Posted 08/08/2008 at 10:48:04 PM