Today, my local paper, the Post Star in Glens Falls NY, ran a story about Governor David Paterson's ideas to raise taxes.
I'm a bit flummoxed by some of his.. ideas.
A sin tax on... Cokes?
The Democrat also reportedly plans to increase taxes on insurance policies, on non-diet sodas under an "obesity tax," reviving the state sales tax on clothing, and changes in funding of hospitals and health care providers that could shift more health costs on individuals and employers.
An obesity tax. Wow. Really? Are we going to have to pay taxes on sugar and tea next? How about stamps?
The obesity tax would raise $404 million, according to the report. Additional costs for most New Yorkers would require new license plates -- to trigger new fees.
I like the plate I have now. I don't want a new one, just so my Governor can get some money. And just when the price of gas has finally become semi-reasonable...
Paterson's proposal would also reportedly lift the limit on how much state tax can be charged for gasoline. The state's tax was limited to 8 cents per gallon. A new state tax could be tied to the price of gas, allowing state revenues to rise with the price of gas.
I'm not entirely sure what, or if, the Governor is thinking here. I was already upset about the drastic cuts which are going to be made to Medicare and Medicaid. This set of cuts are seriously going to be detrimental to the people I work for, the developmentally disabled community. As I said in the Governor's last post here, these folks depend on that money to afford the services of the staff who work for them. Our agency is already stretched thin as it is. And New Yorkers are stretched thin, too. We don't need more sin taxes, more gas tax.
Ultimately, it seems to me that the Governor could really care less about the upstaters like myself, who don't make even $25,000 a year. I know many who make considerably less than $15,000. Of course I understand the need to try to avoid running a deficit. But to raise taxes, and ridiculous ones at that, during this economy seems counterproductive.
Hey Governor Paterson, instead of taxing my soda, how about forcing your rich friends to pay ALL the taxes they owe? Stop nickel and diming us to death with these silly sin taxes. When you raised the taxes on cigarettes, I switched to home-rolling, so you actually saved me a ton of money. In the long run, sin taxes don't do any good to New York State's bottom line.
You can read the whole story
here