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Americans for Tax Reform Director of State Affairs, Patrick Gleason, published an op-ed in the Orange County Register regarding legislation proposed in the California state legislature that would prohibit plastic shopping bags, and impose a 10 cent tax on each paper bag.

Worse than the fact that SB270 poses health risks and will not reduce litter are the unintended economic consequences. With California’s unemployment rate hovering at 8 percent, over 26 percent higher than the national average, it would be foolish to impose a statewide bag ban that could shut down several manufacturing plants, which would directly result in the loss of hundreds of in-state jobs and thousands of job losses indirectly.

Aside from all of that, tax increases are the last thing the Golden State needs. California already has the fourth-highest state and local tax burden in the country, with the state confiscating over 11 percent of the average California taxpayer’s hard-earned income. That’s not to mention the more than 20 new or federal higher taxes from Washington that have hit individuals, families and employers over just the last five years.

Bruce Poliquin, a candidate in Maine’s second Congressional district GOP primary, wrote an op-ed in the Bangor Daily News highlighting his opponent’s concerning voting record.

Also as part of the 2009 state budget [Raye] voted not only to keep the “death tax” but to expand it by taxing gifts made within one year of someone’s death. This hurts many small family businesses, including family farms, in the 2nd District.

Raye refuses to join me in promising Maine families not to vote to raise taxes by signing the Americans for Tax Reform pledge. He wants to keep open the option to increase taxes even though Maine families pay among the highest taxes in America. The $17 trillion national debt is a fiscal crisis smothering our economy and killing jobs. Washington doesn’t have a tax revenue problem; it has an out-of-control spending and borrowing problem. 

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