Cash Starved States Want to Tax Legalized Marijuana

Cash Starved States Want to Tax Legalized Marijuana

I saw an article this morning with this title and I wanted to scream. There is so much wrong with that statement that 47% of our tax payers and a majority of legislators can’t see and that scares me.

Let’s start with cash starved. Why are some states cash starved? It’s not a function of their inability to collect taxes, I’m sure that part of their system works fine. Several states in this country don’t have state income taxes, and they’re not cash staved. It cannot be a function of tax revenue that causes a state to be cash starved. Local, state, and federal regulations as well as taxes either make a state business friendly or not. The free market economy depends on profits. Profits for the business owner, and or investors, are the fuel that drives the economy. A punitive tax structure, oppressive regulations and an ugly personal income tax environment makes some states unfriendly to business, so businesses and employees leave that ugly environment and move to a less ugly environment.

Fewer successful businesses and fewer successful productive individuals who leave a state and relocate into a more business and tax friendly state reduce the number of taxpayers and therefore reduce the amount of tax revenues.

Less money coming in helps a state become cash strapped, but that is not the biggest reason a state is hard up for cash.

Spending is the biggest reason a state would have money troubles. Legislators and politicians want government to be the answer to everybody’s troubles. They promise the voters everything in the world to buy their affection and keep them voting for the liar who promised them the world and they don’t, won’t consider where the money is coming from to support their promises. They see the public piggy bank as the golden goose to further their personal and political agendas. They see it as a bottomless pit of cash available to serve their purposes. They don’t see it as a burden on the tax payer. They were elected to serve the tax payer not the voter. Every tax payer votes, but not every voter pays taxes.

Elected officials have to start thinking that way. Take care of the tax payer and in turn you will take care of the voter. The money you spend came out of someone’s pocket who worked hard and earned that money. Someone’s kid may not be able to go to college or may not be able to see a dentist, or maybe not make a contribution to a retirement fund to make that tax payer less of a burden on the government in retirement. More importantly the person who earned that money doesn’t get to decide how to spend the money they earned; an elected official will.

The reason that person is an elected official is because they couldn’t find and keep a real job that required effort and positive results that’s why they ran for public office. The very low standards expected of them. PS they continually fail to meet those very low standards.

Spending should be for the community served by the elected body. Spending should be minimized and should serve the all of the tax payers the elected body serves. Spending should be for the common good, not spending to buy affection or to reward campaign contributors or political puppeteers who own elected empty suits.

Irresponsible spending coupled with excessive spending is the major reason a state is cash starved.
Now let’s discuss “wants to tax legalized marijuana” I don’t want to discuss whether marijuana should be legalized or not, that is not the issue here. The issue here is the desire to legalize something that is currently illegal to increase revenue. Marihuana is the least illegal substance that is currently illegal in most jurisdictions because some states have legalized it for some medicinal purposes and most jurisdictions barely enforce the crimes associated with it. On the whole it is still illegal and not a resume enhancer in any way.

Legislators want to tax it to generate millions if not billions of dollars of new revenue. The article makes some legislators seem all giddy with excitement that so much more money will come to them and be available to the public piggy bank.

Here are some of the problems I see with this process. First there are people making a profit already from the sale of illegal marijuana and they may object to an interruption of the revenue stream that they have worked very hard to maintain and grow. They will probably object strongly to the changes made to legalize and tax their product.

The consumers of illegal marijuana will already have their sources and will probably have some loyalty to their suppliers who will not be selling taxed product to them.

The elected idiots will almost certainly over estimate the projected revenue that this would generate.
Here is a multiple guess question:

What will most likely happen if they legalize marijuana and anticipate a 10 million dollar revenue from it?

A Reduce the tax burden on the tax payers by 10 million dollars.

B Hold spending at current levels and enjoy a surplus from the new revenue.

C Give themselves a large raise, realize a 2 million dollar increase in revenue and increase spending my 20 million dollars.

If you selected A, stop reading what I write because you are a special kind of stupid. If you selected B you are already smoking what they have not yet legalized. And if you selected C congratulations you just won an all expense paid vacation on Air Force One. Why not they take one every other week, why shouldn’t we get one too.

The last point I want to make is they never look at what gets spent. They always look at how to get more to spend. Legalizing something that is illegal just to increase tax revenue is criminal. That’s why we arrest those who do it now.

What’s next? Legalize prostitution just to add a tax to the process, they’re already getting screwed, that’s what they’re paying for. You want to add a tax to the fee? Legalize other drugs just to gain tax revenue.

Spending is the problem, revenue is never the problem. The tax payer is the source of all good things not the voter. Take care of the tax payer not the voter.

There are way too many incompetent idiots in elected office who feel no obligation to the tax payer.

Voters have got to be better educated and stop voting based on the lies distortions and fabrications of candidates for public office. Free stuff isn’t free. Someone is paying for it and we’re getting tired of carrying the 47%

About gino984

This entry was posted in Economics, General Political Issues, Leadership and Supervision, Patroitism and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Cash Starved States Want to Tax Legalized Marijuana

  1. Reva says:

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