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2 Comments for “Budget Info”

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  dan says:

  February 2, 2009 at 4:08 pm

  i think you should cut the salaries of university teachers, and eliminate the sports programs.
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  Rick says:

  February 3, 2009 at 5:22 am

  I have a couple of suggestions to balance the budget without placing undo burden on the working poor and middle class. I’m a life long Democrat and I think our elected Democratic officials should start acting like Democrats and not balance the budget on the backs of State workers. Wealthly tax payers have been enjoying tax cut since Reagan was in office and now it’s time for them to pay their taxes. Here are my suggestions:

  1) Fines should be structured so that they are proportion of gross income. It’s time for a more progressive and equitable fine structure. For instance a $100 fine for littering for some one making $20,000 per year means the family does not eat, whereas it is pocket change to someone making $200,000 per year. In this example the wealthier taxpayer would pay a $1000 dollar fine for littering. For more serious offenses,for example, a $1000 fine for a taxpayer earning $20,000 would become $10,000 for someone making $200,000 in gross income.

  2)Raise the tax on alcoholic beverages. The legilature had no problems taxing cigarettes, now it’s time for alcoholic beverages which affects more families and health to a much greater degree than cigarettes.

  3)Do completely away any tax breaks that affect only the wealthy such as the inheritance tax.

  4)Do completely away with any tax breaks and give-aways to the ethanol industry. If they can’t compete in the energy market on their own, then it is not a viable energy solution. Plus, it’s immoral to use food for energy.