Arkansas Sales Tax

I didn’t intend for this issue to dominate my schedule as much as it has. However, since agreeing to participate in the forum at North Arkansas College tomorrow, it has become the main focus.

We have been receiving a lot of phone calls, many of which bring up some of the phony claims being made by the opponents of the repeal measure. They have pulled out all stops in their campaign to portray those of us in favor of this measure as evil cold-hearted Libertarians who want nothing less than to shut down every government program and kick every needy person out into the street to suffer and die. It’s exactly how the DemonRats in DC, and their sycophants in the media, constantly portray Republicans.

A caller this morning said they were told that if this passes, all funding for public education will dry up and all of the schools will have to shut down. The fact that the schools receive almost all of their funding from property taxes, which have no relation whatsoever to sales taxes, seems to be overlooked.

I am scheduled to do an interview with a local radio station later this afternoon to present the arguments in favor of repealing the sales tax on food and medicine. They originally wanted me to drive into town, but they finally agreed to let me handle it over the phone.

I’m not going to bore everyone with every detail of this matter. However, since the issue is whether human food and medicine should be exempt from sales tax, I thought it would be interesting to see what kinds of things are already exempt from sales tax here in Arkansas. They don’t have an easy way to see all of the hundreds of special exemptions that are spread throughout these 106 pages of official sales tax regulations. However, they run the gamut. The one that has long struck me as an extreme example of the unfairness is in Section GR-45 on Page 53, where all foods and medicines for livestock and poultry are exempted from sales taxes.

Interestingly, none of those exemptions, that I am aware of, was placed there by the voters. They were all instigated by legislators who were doing favors for their “special friends” (aka big campaign contributors). I actually saw this very process in action back in 1995 during a trip to the Capitol in Little Rock with the Leadership Institute I was taking with the Harrison Chamber of Commerce. We sat in on some committee hearings where they were trying to pass special sales tax exemptions for specific companies. They were threatening to shut down and leave the State if their special exemptions weren’t granted.

If additional sales tax money is so important to the bureaucrats, maybe they can take a look at removing some of the esoteric exemptions that only benefit certain people and companies rather than penalize everyone for buying their food and medicine.

KMK

Even moderate tax rates discourage economic activity

What Would Happen if Congress Repealed the 2001 Bush Tax Cuts?

More On Food Tax Issue

Sherry was in Harrison earlier today and picked up some of the slick brochures the big government folks have produced (at taxpayer expense) to spread their lies about the ballot initiative to remove sales tax from human food and medicine. The cover pretty much says it all: “Their Axe Attacks Us All.”

Inside are all kinds of lies and misrepresentations about the catastrophic effects awaiting Arkansas if tax revenues to the government are reduced by even one cent. It will be so terrible here in Arkansas that we might as well all pack up and move to a high taxing state so that all of our humanly needs will be taken care of. Remaining here would be suicide under the conditions we will be facing.

One line of reasoning that the opponents of the measure use is that removing the sales tax on food and medicine will start a chain reaction, reducing other sources of revenue, such as the Soda Tax, Hamburger Tax and Medicare Matching. Those taxes and payments are calculated differently than normal retail sales taxes, so there is no legitimate linkage. These issues were even addressed and found to be bogus in the Arkansas Supreme Court decision last week that allowed the measure to remain on the ballot.

Here’s a new reason to vote against the sales tax repeal that Sherry heard from a client who happens to run a retail food store. He is planning to vote against it in order to save himself from the hassle of having to reprogram his cash registers.

KMK

Debating Taxes

Making an increasingly rare public appearance, I have agreed to take part in a debate-forum the students at the local community college are holding on the ballot measure to repeal the Arkansas sales tax on human food and medicine. Surprisingly, I will be taking the side in support of the measure. The arguments in favor of keeping the tax will be handled by the President of the Harrison Chamber of Commerce, Layne Wheeler. As a forum to present both sides of the issue, this should have a better turnout than the two people who showed up at a recent meeting in Berryville that was strictly against the measure.

I do realize that, being sponsored by students, this is a trip into the lions’ den. It’s a certainty that those students and faculty have been subjected to a constant brainwashing of propaganda proclaiming the end of their lives if the sales tax is removed from food and medicines. This has been done with students in all of the other levels of government schools.

The forum is scheduled to begin at noon on Thursday, October 31 in the Little Theater in the main building. It will also cover arguments for and against the other controversial measure on the Arkansas ballot, regarding animal cruelty. I am actually looking forward to hearing more about this measure because all I have seen are the lies being told by its opponents who are twisting the issue to say that it would outlaw all hunting and fishing, which is ridiculous. While I haven’t made up my mind on how I will vote on this matter, the opponents haven’t helped their case by resorting to obvious blatant lies. The opponents of the food tax repeal run the same risk with their outrageous doom and gloom end of the world arguments. Such obvious lies destroy any credibility the opponents could hope to have with objective voters.

KMK

Silent Treatment

Bush is keeping silent in response to the lies the DemonRats are spouting about Social Security. Unfortunately, most people assume that no response to a statement or claim means that it is true. The longer Bush waits to fight back against the lefties’ misinformation campaign, the more entrenched the lies will be in the public consciousness.

KMK

Review and Overhaul California’s Tax System

It has definitely been a stupid way to forecast revenues, based on asinine assumptions about capital gains taxes. Of course, our rulers in DC do the exact same thing. However, they aren’t required to have a balanced budget, as the State rulers are.

KMK

Zodiac Business

I’ve always been a student of new and innovative business ideas. However, I’m not even close to endorsing the idea of basing business decisions on astrology. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that this idea has a willing and gullible market out on the Left Coast in the city that they used to call Baghdad By The Bay. (Maybe they still call it that. I haven’t been to SF in almost ten years.)

KMK

Make the code less taxing

Don’t Count Your Chickens

The fans of high taxes here in Arkansas are not giving up their fight to deprive the voters from having a say on the taxation of sales of human food and medicine. In spite of one defeat (for them) in the Arkansas Supreme Court last week, they are trying again to convince the Supremes to toss the measure off of the ballot before next Tuesday’s election.

Even if the issue remains on the ballot, you can be sure that the bureaucrats will file even more lawsuits against it after November 5, if it wins, as they are certain it will.

KMK