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April 13, 2005
April 15 - the day all of us are played for real fools
April is the month when legislatures, state and federal, get down and really dirty in a never-ending task of separating people from their money. The most significant day of this month other than April Fools is the 15th, when every hard working person in our country gets played for a fool. This year the date falls on a Friday, so some bureaucrat somewhere has probably already alerted the media that the headlines should shout Thank God It's Friday. All tax-filing headaches are finished and we don't have to worry about it for another year. Too bad those same working fools aren't aware they still have another month to work this year to pay what they will owe next year. It is also one of the most dominant months of the year for budget hearings and horror stories from one special interest group or another trying to humanize their agenda to get a law passed to enable them to legally separate people from their money. Whether its hospitals looking for higher payment schedules; or lawyers looking for more lawsuit enabling legislation; or doctors looking to have their costs cut while increasing patient liability; police and fire unions using their leadership in the Assembly to ensure ever higher security costs; or utilities looking to have their revenues raised; or elected officials testifying on why they need higher salaries and then voting themselves pay raises; there seems no end to the plight of the needy. Schools are still trying to argue the need for more money even though it has been factually shown the real need is discipline, not money. The school union still argues the state is not providing funding equal to that of other states. They can do this by ignoring several funding sources which, if included, would make its charges moot. The fact is funding is actually much higher per pupil than in other similar sized states. But when this point is made they change the terms of the argument to one about those opposing throwing more money at a failed system not wanting to support the children. Here in Nye County the actual funding, from all levels of government, exceeds $10,000 per pupil enrolled. And that doesn't even include the construction bond payments. The Clark County School District has a budget rivaling that of the entire state of Nevada and yet its leaders continue to cry poverty. The community college system provided a prime example of this intellectual deceit when confronted with the fact the increased enrollment for which they received a great deal of extra revenue never occurred. Rather than simply accepting a hard fact, their lobbyists argued that the money should still continue to grow just in case the increases might occur in the future. Now there's sound business practice for you. At least it might be if you had the ability to extort money from people who will probably never use your service, buy your product or benefit from your expenditure of their money. You have to wonder whether any of the business or economics courses they provide ever get beyond exploring the theories of Marx and or the natural function of a socialist utopia. Truly funny how things just keep spiraling out of control once the spin has begun. From the dawn of the written word, tales of noble intentions gone awry have been the teaching tool of those who would warn of not looking at the consequences, intended and unintended, of our actions. As individuals, we are held responsible, to one degree or another, by the laws and morals of our society. But who is it that can hold the government responsible for the actions it takes when it chooses not to accept responsibility, but pursue the misadventure further? And if there are no checks on the ability of government to err and continue to err without recourse, what will be the eventual outcome? Two years ago our state representatives passed the largest tax increase in the history of the state, which resulted in equally the largest cash surplus ever. If these elected officials really represented their electorate, wouldn't logic demand this surplus be returned in case it was needed at another time? Instead, they spent the first half of the legislative session doing nothing more than ensuring an inflation rate in the state of Nevada of no less than 3 percent annually. Not just in increased property taxes, but in all costs related to every person in the state finding new resources to pay for the taxes. "An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation." - John Marshall Once again, a founding father put an ideal on the record for future generations to review. The idea government's function is not to strive to find ever new and ingenious ways to separate the people from the rewards of their labors. And yet again, modern elected social engineers choose to ignore the obvious to the peril of future generations. And, as the annual cashing in of income tax refunds approaches, I would suggest everyone take a close look at your entire tax return along with your W-2 form. Take a moment and add up the total of social security taxes and income taxes and then ask yourself whether you could, if these funds were not withheld for you, write a check for the amount owed. Then add to this total the costs of all the other taxes of which you are aware. Take a look at your power, phone, cable or cell phone bills. Think of all the gasoline taxes, excise taxes and administrative fees you pay in licensing or whatever. And then ask yourself, how could we have gone so wrong? Little writes from Pahrump. His column, "The Other Side," appears here on Wednesdays. |
