State Tax Update Archive
[2003 - 2004] [2002 and Older]

Volume 6, Issue 23

Millennial Taxers
-courtesy of the Wall Street Journal
GOP Governors seem to have been pounding down the bubbly, or something similar, well in advance of New Year's.  How else to explain their recent tax behavior?  Utah's Mike Leavitt will now enter history as the man who wanted to tax the internet.  But his boisterousness hardly matches South Dakota's Governor Bill Janklow, who warns that a failure to tax the Web might force his state to "disrupt interstate commerce."  He might, he says , have to begin "sending out the highway patrol to start pulling over little brown (UPS) trucks," sort out the Internet packages and then "follow" them to their final destinations, where his men would collect the "use tax" citizens owe on out-of-state purchases.  We guess he is kidding.

But it looks like New York Governor George Pataki will go into history as engineering the last tax increase of the past 1,000 years. Some honor.  He plans to almost double the current 56-cent tax on a  cigarette pack to pay for state health care costs.  The silver lining is that these fat and happy taxers are slimming down the list of prospective Vice Presidential candidates.

Nebraska Legislature rejects Tobacco Tax hike
The unicameral, non-partisan senate voted 23-20 against a proposal to increase tobacco taxes.  The measure needed 25 votes to be placed on the legislative calendar.

Indiana considers spending restraint measure
Senate Bill 21 will be heard in the Senate Finance Committee on January 20th, 2000.  The bill would limit spending increases to the rate of inflation plus 1% annually.  Any further increase in spending would have to be approved by 2/3rds of both the Assembly and the Senate.  Senators Kent Adams and Luke Kenley have been nominated for the monthly "hero" award for sponsoring the legislation.

Ohio revolt brewing
A group calling itself the Ohio tea party wants to bar cities and villages from imposing income taxes on people who work in those towns but, live elsewhere.  Bill Morand, chairman of the groups political action committee, No Taxation Without Representation, thinks it sounds familiar.

Mayor Michael White (D- Cleveland) thinks any such action would cripple the city, "If this were to occur, we would have to make severe cuts in all city departments and services, including police, fire, and EMS."

The PAC has drafted a constitutional amendment to restrict income taxes to residents only and is attempting to get on the November 7th ballot.

Mayor White has vowed to fight, promising to rally other cities against the proposal.

Interstate toll update
In New Jersey, the Turnpike Authority has proposed toll hikes for all vehicle traffic.  The hikes would rise by 34% over a four-year period. Meanwhile in Missouri, State Senator Danny Staples has proposed tolling the I-70 bridge over the Mississippi river in St. Louis, Missouri.  Arkansas and South Carolina last year moved (but failed) to toll interstate highways while Republican Governor George Ryan (R-Il.) stated his desire to rescind all tolls in Illinois.

Kentucky glass-tax increase update
Chief sponsor Greg Stumbo (D) acknowledged that his proposed 5-cent to 10-cent legislation would likely falter.  Instead he noted that the Natural Resources Secretary James Bickford's proposal of a one-cent tax on drink containers had a better chance of passage.   Both proposals seek to create a fund to clean up roadsides and illegal dumps.