What Tax Cut?

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=926&ncid=959&e=3&u=/usnews/20040128/ts_usnews/whattaxcut

What Tax Cut?
Wed Jan 28, 2:00 PM ET

BY LEONARD WIENER

You might want to relish that tax cut George Bush gave you last year--the one he argued in the State of the Union address last week should be made permanent. <snip>


Facing yawning budget gaps--totaling about $200 billion over the past three years--state legislatures are trying to ease the revenue squeeze by disconnecting their tax rules from the federal system. That can mean denying on state individual and business returns the federal favors that Washington is bestowing on stock dividends, inherited estates, capital gains, and deductions.


Overall, 18 states imposed major tax increases last year that are expected to raise $6.2 billion for fiscal 2004, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, N.Y. That's on top of boosts of nearly $6 billion that 15 states enacted in 2002. This is the heaviest round of increases since hikes during the recession of the early 1990s. In 2001, only six states hiked taxes; during the three years before that, it was mostly tax cuts.<snip>



New York accountant Mark Plostock, who lectures on state and local taxes, notes that despite new low federal tax rates for dividends and capital gains, his state--home to Wall Street--still treats dividends and capital gains as fully taxed regular income. "Many people only hear sound bites about federal reductions," he says. Few states allow lower capital-gains rates--and even those are often limited--and the feds are mostly alone in favoring dividends.
<snip>


No smoking. Also on the upswing are sales taxes, fees, corporate levies, and assorted taxes for such things as hotel rooms, entertainment, and motor fuel. A 1 percentage-point hike in their sales taxes is expected to raise $165 million in fiscal 2004 for Idaho, $29 million for Vermont, and $1.3 billion for Ohio. Smokers are also paying more. Georgia, for example, has more than tripled its cigarette tax to 37 cents a pack, and New Jersey upped its tax from $1.50 a pack to $2.05. Even Delaware, known as corporate headquarters-friendly, was forced to increase its business franchise tax. According to a survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures, the total of fee boosts last year was three times the increase in 2002, which itself was more than double the amount in 2001.<snip>

[JeebusH]

1. there is a bit of poetic justice here ....

the red states have been increasing taxes since Dumbya stole office, so his very supporters are the ones getting screwed since its these states that take a disportioned amount of Federal aid