An article in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Minnesota's tax-burden rank droped slightly from 5th highest in the nation based on income to eighth highest among the fifty states. Progress at last you might say? A small step forward after years of being at or near the top in tax burden rankings?
No. No. No.
How about an opportunity to call for raising taxes?
DFLers and interest groups who are opposing big cuts in government programs say the latest rankings show that Minnesota has at least a little room to raise taxes and recoup some of the billions of dollars returned in late-1990s tax cuts, especially to higher-income households.
Yup we really should be happy that for one year we were only the eighth most taxed state in the union. Ahhh.. that was nice. Now back to taking one for the team. It's for the common good donchaknow?
"Minnesota has been cutting taxes more rapidly than other states, and this shows that pattern," said Wayne Cox, executive director of Minnesota Citizens for Tax Justice, a group financed by labor unions. "The problem now is that Minnesota has cut taxes so much that it can't pay its bills anymore."
Yeah, double digit spending increases had nothing to do with that at all. It was us greedy taxpayers. The nerve of us to cut taxes SO MUCH that we're barely in the top ten anymore. It's just not right.
Plus we all know that raising taxes drives economic growth. Right?
Cox argues that the state and the nation's longest economic boom followed state and federal tax increases in the early 1990s, while "we've cut taxes in recent years and lost jobs and gone into a recession."
So there you have it. Raise taxes and the economy improves. Cut taxes and it goes to hell in a hand basket. Simple.
Why I bet if we could raise taxes in Minnesota enough to claim the number one spot we'd have the best economy in the whole darn country. Makes sense, don't it?
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