Wayne Laugesen Schools Tax Hikers In Economic Reality
As the Denver Post reports, Colorado State Senator Rollie Heath is proposing to ask Coloradans to approve a three-year, $1.63 billion income and sales tax increase.
In response, the Colorado Springs Gazette’s reliably pro-free market, pro-liberty editorial page editor Wayne Laugesen patiently schools advocates for higher taxes in some economic reality:
A tax is a price on government services. State government must run like a business, viewing taxpayers as the customers who fund it. Customers pay the state in return for services. In Colorado, where residents vote on taxes, customers are supposed to determine what they will and will not buy. During this time of extraordinary economic challenge, Colorado taxpayers cannot afford all they have enjoyed in the past. They have less money to spend on education, which means they are able to buy less of it from state employees. They can barely afford the current price tag, much less a higher one. It is no more complicated than that. Most Coloradans understand the value of education and would like more of it. So what? Most most would enjoy a Harvard education, if only they could afford one.
Only an increase in the state’s private-sector productivity will result in more capital to invest through government, and the private-sector cannot invest in its own growth by sending more capital to Denver. We cannot tax our way out of recession any more than a restaurant can over-price food to counter dwindling demand.
Read the whole thing here.
