With regard to business taxes – see the section on Jobs.
With regard to us regular folk – here are some sobering statistics which you can read about here. I’ll summarize what that says here. As percent of our hard earned income, West Virginians pay more in tax than all but three states – 33% more than the national average. So, while we rank 4th on the tax misery list, Virginia ranks 42nd. They make more than we do, and they get to keep more of it also. Imagine that! That’s what happens when you have a good tax structure and sound economic policies.
With regard to the gasoline tax – we’re higher than Maryland by 8 cents a gallon and Virginia by 11.9 cents a gallon. (Pennsylvania is less than a penny higher). I’ll bet that our local gas stations love the fact that we gas up where we work instead of where we live. Our neighbors in Maryland and Virginia love us for it.
Taxes act as a drag on economic activity and are a drag on performance. Each dollar the collected in taxes costs between $1.60 and $1.80 in economic activity. Further, as the Federal Government found out in the 1980s (and our neighboring states found out also) – when you lower taxes, economic activity increases leading to greater tax revenues. It’s a virtuous circle.
Elliot Simon
Taxes
With regard to business taxes – see the section on Jobs.
With regard to us regular folk – here are some sobering statistics which you can read about here. I’ll summarize what that says here. As percent of our hard earned income, West Virginians pay more in tax than all but three states – 33% more than the national average. So, while we rank 4th on the tax misery list, Virginia ranks 42nd. They make more than we do, and they get to keep more of it also. Imagine that! That’s what happens when you have a good tax structure and sound economic policies.
With regard to the gasoline tax – we’re higher than Maryland by 8 cents a gallon and Virginia by 11.9 cents a gallon. (Pennsylvania is less than a penny higher). I’ll bet that our local gas stations love the fact that we gas up where we work instead of where we live. Our neighbors in Maryland and Virginia love us for it.
Taxes act as a drag on economic activity and are a drag on performance. Each dollar the collected in taxes costs between $1.60 and $1.80 in economic activity. Further, as the Federal Government found out in the 1980s (and our neighboring states found out also) – when you lower taxes, economic activity increases leading to greater tax revenues. It’s a virtuous circle.