Chafee Is ‘Apocalypse Now’ for Taxpayers
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Last Tuesday, a little over a third of the population opted to put their trust in Lincoln Chafee to lead us over the next four years. I was with the 64 percent of Rhode Islanders who did not trust Chafee. And if you’re in that majority as we get closer to inauguration day the sense of doom grows.
Be afraid of his sales tax plan folks, very afraid.
Here’s a sampling of what he proposes to tax – newspapers, school meals, coffins, heating fuel, trade-ins, and textbooks (for everything else click here). I have a fundamental disagreement with the taxing our way to recovery and Chafee hung his hat on this additional sales tax plan claiming his opponents didn’t really offer an alternative. While this line of reasoning resonated with 36 percent of the population, most of us weren’t buying.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAt some point your overburdened tax base is going to crumble. Most people are paying car taxes on their older vehicles for the first time in years. Others have seen property tax increases year over year for many years and the state continues to deal with hundred million dollar plus deficits! Chafee’s plan?
Tax us some more!
Make no mistake; this tax plan hurts low and middle income families far more than upper income families. Because of this it’s been surprising to watch progressives rally around Chafee. Their usual refrain is “tax the rich to death and subsidize the poor” and yet as you read progressive musings, they are completely enamored with Chafee’s plan.
We all need to wake up. The way out is through investment in small businesses and to lift the burden on consumers so we spend more of our discretionary income on those same businesses in RI. It’s impossible to get there with high unemployment rates caused by an overwhelmingly unfriendly business climate. Chafee’s plan?
Tax us some more!
To Governor-elect Chafee I send this word of caution: the people of Rhode Island are trusting you to lead us out of this economic nightmare. Don’t abuse that trust by taxing us to death and putting even more stress upon the most vulnerable section of our workforce.
Because if you do we’ll look back on November 2, 2010 as the beginning of the end for Rhode Island.
