[From the Road.]
Joel Kramer of Growth & Justice appeared on this week's Almanac to discuss the group's Invest for Real Prosperity proposal. [The segment is 11:30 into the program.]
Predictably, questions centered on taxes and the opposing view was presented by Harold Hamilton, member of the Taxpayers League and owner of a business that employs 125 people. Kramer did a good job countering questions about the proposal, including why private philanthropy (Just send in a check if you feel that way) can't address the investment issues.
All current private, non-religious, philanthropy, including that from those who support higher taxes, totals slightly less than the $2 billion proposed to be raised. If all the signers of the proposal sent in additional checks equal to the proposed tax obligation, it would only total $4 million a year – hardly enough to build a road, let alone propel the state forward.
On the income tax inequity problem, Kramer said it would take 260 families to equal Taxpayers League funder Bill Cooper's income last year. Yet those families would pay $1 million more in taxes than Cooper
under the present system.
Hamilton said, government has a spending problem, not a tax problem, and for evidence, he said private schools can educate kids for less than the public school system. No word on how efficient the privates would be if they took on all kids, however
Hamilton also said increased taxes would kill small business investment needed to grow sales and create jobs. As a former job creator and company owner, I can tell you what he really means, since in all likelihood his company's taxes flow to his personal return: "If I pay higher taxes, I won't reduce my compensation in order to invest in my business."
That's not the perspective of an entrepreneurial job creator.
