The George Report

May 1, 2009, commentary by State Rep. Camille "Bud" George, D-74 of Clearfield County

Tax-filing deadline passes but bewilderment lives on

            Most of us won’t face the headache of facing another state and federal tax-filing deadline for about 50 weeks. A bevy of interesting events and reports greeted this year’s April 15 deadline.

            "Tea" -- Taxed Enough Already – parties sprung up nationwide, including in Altoona and Harrisburg.

Taxes always will be a push-button issue on people’s emotions. However, some of the claims and signs at the rallies – including "Born Free But Taxed To Death" and "Commander in Thief" – suggest that more reason and less inflammatory rhetoric is needed.

Data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showed that the federal income tax burden is "hovering near its lowest level in three decades for all but the wealthiest Americans."

The Washington Post reported that a Gallup Poll taken last month said a majority of those surveyed said the amount of federal income taxes they pay is either "too low" or "about right," and was "one of the most positive assessments of the federal tax burden since Gallup began asking the question in 1956."

The anti-Obama sentiments evident at the anti-tax rallies was perplexing. The president’s "Making Work Pay" tax break affects 95 percent of working families. It’s a far cry from the "trickle down" philosophies that led to tax cuts for the richest 1 percent and doodly-squat for the rest.

Is it a fear that we are mortgaging our children’s future with debt?

The deficits are mind-blowing. President Obama inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit from President George W. Bush, who was left a $230 billion surplus, and it’s going to take more than 110 days in office to plot a new course.

Perhaps the president made a tactical mistake in not employing the accounting "tricks" used in previous budgets, including not factoring in war costs, omitting contingency funds for natural disasters and making unrealistic Medicare cost projections.

I saw little reporting of the president’s plan to control health-care costs and return the  top two income tax brackets to their 1990’s levels of 36 percent and 39.6 percent, where they were under President Reagan.

 Other tax brackets would remain unchanged, and President Obama is firm in his pledge not to raise taxes on Americans earning less than $250,000 a year.

In Pennsylvania, only a few yelps have been heard about raising any broad-based taxes -- such as the state income, sales or business tax -- and the proposed budget would continue to phase out of the capital stock and franchise tax.

Enough real inequity exists to stoke the fires of any reasonable citizen.

One of the most regressive taxes, the sales tax, is frequently eyed in as a solution to revenue shortfalls. It’s anything but a solution – it’s exceedingly expensive to collect and is a relic in this age of Internet sales.

The sales tax also is unreliable. The Wall Street Journal reported that state and local sales-tax revenue fell more sharply in the fourth quarter of 2008 than at any time in the past half century, and has continued to erode through the beginning of 2009.

It is unacceptable that so many Americans must resort to paying tax preparers and accountants because of the complexity of the federal tax code.

The federal and state tax loopholes and havens available only to the favored few should make one’s blood boil.

Even though the new president has taken steps to close offshore tax havens, The New York Times reported April 19 that, "Businesses and their Congressional allies are coming together to try to fend off an effort to close corporate tax loopholes."

There’s plenty to be disgruntled about. However, let’s be sure of our targets and not be bamboozled by those who welcome failure.

Aim small, miss small.

                                                                        --30--