They Keep Taking Our Money and Ignoring Our Priorities (scampydog)

Taxes Not the freshest topic - many justified complainers, nobody shuts up about them, and nearly every politician insists this time it’ll be different. We all know the cycle: Promise big…Collect small, Over report….Deliver little…Blame others…Repeat.

Politicians treat taxes the way linguists treat grammar: obsessively, creatively, and with a hammer of righteous. A new noun appears? They’ll find a way to tax it. A new verb? There’s a fee for that too. The left, in particular, gets excited about conjugating taxes - a new tense, a new bracket, a new license. If it exists in language or life, it exists in their desire to tax it.

New York: Tax the Rich

Recent tax theater: Courtesy of NYC’s gobemouche voters (thanks for the novel word, CBD) and Sharia fan, Zohran Mamdani, who has proposed the most predictable tax plan. A plan that is apparently loved by young, female voters.

• Raise city income tax by 2% for those earning over $1M
• Raise corporate tax from 6.5% to 11.5% (a barely noticeable 77% hike). Incidentally, matches the Garden State's rate. What a cuck.

Florida and Texas, close your borders or ready your welcome committee. Better yet, hire the best honey badger gatekeeper that money can buy.

Pollyanna-style, the Zohran plan calls for $9B a year in fancy new tax revenue. Quick, rhetorical question: Has any tax hike delivered what it promised (besides kickbacks and insider stock tips)? Taxes are Kickstarter campaigns: generation of excitement of the easily impressionable around an oblique idea with clouded intentions and delivery problems.

However, a study from Columbia Business School estimates that if corporate taxes and high-earner surcharges lead to accelerated relocations, the city could see up to $50 billion in lost GDP and between 150,000 and 200,000 finance-related jobs disappear over several years. And should investor confidence falter, rating agencies such as Moody’s and S&P could reevaluate the city’s municipal bond rating, raising the cost of public borrowing. This would complicate Mamdani’s ability to fund new housing and infrastructure—a tension his administration will need to manage carefully.

If this passes, which requires the NY legislature and Governor Hochul’s signature (she’s up for re-election in 2026), high earners and corporations definitely won’t flee… Scout’s honor.

Minnesota: Hotdish of Hidden Taxes

Let’s hit some flyover country and hidden/invisible taxes. Minnesota delivers the waste stream hotdish. Solid waste taxes rise with a Minnesota Nice smile and style. “We are encouraging environmental stewardship.” Translation: We found a new noun – garbage - and we are taxing it.

The Minnesota trash/waste plan offers a better return than ESPN’s extortion model to streaming services and cable providers. Quick side bar. ESPN is charging Next TV $9.42 per subscriber. ESPN/Disney/Groomerville.

Case study: Kandiyohi County built a shiny new transfer station, overspent, and now requires unrealistic volumes at predatory rates to be landfilled there - logistics be damned. Tip: the economics don’t favor haulers or the public. The result? A subtle mace to the face disguised as local planning. Reminds someone of Silver State Disposal back in the 90’s. Only hauler in the greater Las Vegas area. And they were not shy about wielding their power.

Not all landfills are created equal. In Minnesota, cardboard is classified as MSW (municipal solid waste – household garbage) vs. C/D (construction and demolition) waste. C/D landfills need to separate and transfer if it ends up at their facility – generally speaking their permits do not allow for landfilling. There is no market to recycle cardboard or plastic (whether “high value” PET or HDPE). Currently both are net losers. More accurately, the cost of processing exceeds the price to sell. What is the county solution? Raise the invisible taxes and force behavioral patterns they want.

Take a gander at this flairless spreadsheet snip.

Colorado: Tax Yourself

Heading west, Colorado voters recently approved new taxes for themselves – ignoring the millions spent around telling them not to. One cannot underestimate the power of wine box AWFL’s and stupid. Like watching someone argue in their mirror. Coloradans: Government wastes my money. Take more! We don’t trust government, let’s give them more money to prove it.

Colorado lever pullers just voted their approval on Proposition MM and LL. Both of which are for the “free school meals” program. Households earning over $300k got themselves a tax increase (via less state income tax reductions / write offs).

The Rest of the West

• California: In the rarest moment, California did not have any statewide ballot measure around taxes in the 2025 election. We are shocked, Californians. Do better.

• Oregon and Washington… hold my Bacardi. Oregon has a few items winding their way through the process. House Bill 2025 would increase fuel tax, vehicle fees, EV fees, and transit payroll tax (transit payroll tax...read that again). Portland being Portland wants to raise property taxes from $0.80 to $1.40 per $1,000 assessed value - a shy, barely noticeable 75% jump.

• Washington passed a fuel tax increase of 6 cents per gallon – a smooth 12%. Going from 49.4 cents to 55.4 cents. Per gallon. Bonus (There is always a bonus with blue states). They pegged a 2% annual increase onto it. Geometrically, this math is not a friend.

Proposed Taxes

Probably giving them ideas, but let’s close the rant with a bit of silly and fun.

Easy ones: TikTok Tax, Fish Lips Selfie Tax, Emoji Essays Tax.

A bit more vinegar: Chi-Chi Coffee Shop Tax, Statement Bags and Attire Tax, Hidden Spots - Traveler Locales Tax, Influencers Tax (special taxing district, 175% dumbass Tax).

Recommended: Sharia Law Tax, Adhan/Azan - Hayya ‘ala-s-Salah Tax, Goat Loving Tax, Marry Your Brother Tax, Hijab Tax.

Across the country, the story is the same: We keep paying for priorities we didn’t choose.

posted by Open Blogger at 12:00 PM

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