A couple of weeks ago, I noted that a new campaign theme was emerging, pushed initially by John Edwards: Bush is actually raising your taxes.
The idea is that Bush cuts taxes dramatically at the federal level, but services are left largely in tact at the state and local level. Naturally, municipalities have to raise taxes to keep up. As Matt Bai wrote in the New York Times, “Cut federal taxes and it’s the governors’ problem. Cut state taxes and it’s the mayors’ problem. One way or another, the tax burden is what’s really trickling down.”
(To see how things are going in your state, take a look at a state-by-state synopsis of how taxes and fees are going up dramatically at the state level, regardless of which party controls the state government. Nearly every state in the union has either already raised taxes/fees or is about to.)
There’s a great article in the Washington Post today about this point, with some compelling examples about families and businesses hit hard by a growing tax burden.
Noting that the federal and state governments are pushing “fiscal crises of historic proportions” from one level to the next, the Post explained, “While cutting federal taxes, President Bush and Congress left billions of dollars of federal education, health care and homeland security obligations to states. Governors and legislators — already struggling to fix record budget deficits, mostly without raising taxes — cut spending deeply in almost every area, including local aid. With nowhere else to send the bill, local governments are cutting services and, in many cases, raising property taxes.”
The article looked at Fall River, Massachusetts, as an example. Fiscal troubles at the state level means $4.5 million less from the state for police, fire, libraries, trash pickup and other basic services. The mayor has cut 145 jobs from the city budget — including 61 police officers and firefighters — and the city is still running a deficit.
So what happens? Property taxes are going up 8%.
This is going on all over the country, and as the Post noted, “with states predicting more budget crises in 2005, the process is likely to continue.”
All the while, the Bush administration is championing more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires and less aid to states. Bush has already signed nearly $2 trillion in tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthy, and he’s getting ready to fight for even more tax cuts next year and every year he’s in office.
Isn’t life in Bush’s America great?