Our Foolish Income Tax Fanatic

Make that "fool"

Comfortably ensconced in his second term as Ohio governor, John Kasich is returning to his true love.  The union-busting thing didn't work out, but now he's back to hacking away at the state income tax.  His latest budget reduces income taxes by about a quarter, and replaces some of it, not all of it, with sales taxes.

The Wonder-Guv says income taxes punish success.

Let's consider that belief (and that's what it is with Kasich -- a true belief, a zealotry, a religion.)

• In his Gekko-like mind, money and income are the obvious and only true measures of success.
• Kasich views tax payments as a form of competition, and he wants the tax code to give greater rewards to those he deems to be the "winners."
• If you accept his premise that income tax "punishes" success, then all forms of taxation are punishments.  Property taxes punish my success/ability to buy real estate.  Sales taxes punish my success/ability to consume goods and services.  Why does he believe an income tax is a more grievous penalty than any other tax?  

Webster's Dictionary defines tax (n) -- a compulsory percentage of income, property value, sales price, etc. paid for the support of a government.

Nothing in there about reward or punishment, success or failure.  Just "support of a government."

Kasich's Norquistian plan intentionally cuts support to our state government, and tells us to like it or lump it.

http://www.policymattersohio.org/kasich-tax-proposal-feb2015

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In a great op-ed column in today's Dispatch, Tom Suddes points out that for all Kasich's caterwauling about our supposedly uncompetitive high taxes, Ohio has done nothing but reduce its income tax rate for the past 30 years.  Suddes writes:

"If income tax cuts compel risk-taking entrepreneurs to throw their dice in Ohio, then our state today should be a frosty Silicon Valley.  But life isn't that simple."

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2015/03/01/01-ohio-income-tax-has-been-cut-and-cut-and-cut-and-cut.html