Whenever I hear a siren from a constable's patrol car or fire engine go by, I get excited. I don't know about you, but I like to see my tax dollars at work. I like to know where those taxes are spent (or not spent), and I like to make sure that the monies are going toward something useful (like, ya know, corporate bonuses for bailed out banks). For example...Last week, the state Senate passed the new budget bill. The state is looking at a budget shortfall of almost a half billion dollars by the end of the fiscal year. Governor Beshear signed the bill into law on Febrary 13 - one that was another bipartisan effort - in the hope of slowing the hemorraghing of money the state has incurred over the past few years.
The bill features the usual moving around of money and pruning of in-house projects. The good news, though, is that additional tax renevue will keep the state from cutting the funding of projects and instutitions that need money the most. This includes public school districts statewide, the prison system, and most importantly, Medicaid. As of now, there are some 770,000 poor and disabled Kentuckians benefiting from the state Medicaid program. Kids and the elderly - I mean, these are the people that generally get the short end of the stick when lawmakers have budget tweak get-togethers, so it's very welcome news that Beshear and our elected representatives were able to do this right and with relatively little squabbling.
Now the bad news. One side effect of the bill is, of course, the money has to actually come from somewhere. Whoda thunk it? Certainly the most controversial component of the bill, you'll see a lot of this money coming in the form of a higher tax on alcohol and tobacco. Naturally, there's certainly a lot of opposition to the tax increase (which would jump the tax on tobacco two-fold). I would go as far as to call this opposition "bitching" to some extent. I understand the argument that it's tough to tax products that our state produces. Though the state does has a relative high alcohol tax, Kentucky also enjoys one of the lowest tax rates on tobacco products in the nation. Everything's a give and take, and zero-sum ain't bad.
Anyway, the way I see, these aforementioned purchases are vices. Consider it a vice tax (like New York's proposed tax on porno). In these tough times, we all make some concessions, and I'd rather shell out a little extra on something I don't need, per se, than see my benefits disappear or our schools fall apart. And I'm a drinker and half-pack-a-day smoker. Feel free to drop by my apartment sometime for a dinner party - I have plenty of cheese to go with your whine.
Ultimately, there's never a quick and easy solution to budget problems in a damaged economy, but at least a short term solution that will, at the very least, try to balance the budget was achieved quickly. A gold star for Beshear and lawmakers for acting like grown-ups and getting things done (as government, despite the stereotype, is supposed to do). It's time to better our state,and keeping our schools and health care system properly funded is unequivocally one of the best starting points.
But again, this is only a quick fix. For long term solutions, however, Kentucky needs to go one step further. I think it's time to take a serious look at how taxes are structured in this state and make a much needed change. This means it's time to take a serious look at Rep. Jim Wayne's progressive tax structure, one that the Lexington Herald-Leader's Tom Eblen mentioned on his blog shortly after the recent budget passed. It's a decent proposal (one that will most likely benefit you if you're reading this blog), and one I plan to look at more in-depth at in the near future.
[As a somewhat irrelevant aside - though I find the above political cartoon cute, as it were, the comic sans font is never, ever okay to use. That's my public service announcement for the day.]
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