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February 16, 2010 12:37 AM UTC

The Republican Budget Solution

  • 19 Comments
  • by: sufimarie

I’ve sat in numerous committees and votes about the bills that will release the tax exempt status of various revenue makers, many of whom received their tax breaks during the boom years. Republicans would rather abort their first-born boy than make Pepsi, bull semen pumpers, junk mailers and Amazon.com pay the state a pittance of 2.7% in state taxes. The only alternative solutions I heard from Republicans were to “fire all new state hires” (oddly they don’t see as killing jobs), and to “cut state employee’s income by 25%.” **

To test your levels of compassion and intelligence, I’ve created a poll that allows you vote for the departments in which you believe employees deserve a 25% cut in income.

Please explain your vote or, if you’re a Republican, don’t bother with an explanation. We know that’s hard for you boys.  

**For those of you who didn’t realize, this would murder the sticky hand, bouncy, and gum ball industries.

In which depts should employees take a 25% pay cut (choose many)

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19 thoughts on “The Republican Budget Solution

  1. Educators have been making salaries they can live on for at least 20 years, and yet our students are still average.

    If we try paying them all minimum wage, maybe we can get all students to be above average! It’s worth a shot.

    1. We don’t pay sales tax on Pepsi. That’s the beautiful thing. Pepsi is protesting that if their tax-free advantage is taken away, consumers will become overly frugal (read: irrational) and say “Well I normally pay $2.99 for this 6 pack but now I’m paying $3.07 which means Pepsi is less desirable to me. Now I have to cut back my Pepsi consumption from 2 six packs a day to 723.4 six packs per year” when everyone knows the variation in price from one vending machine, restaurant, grocery store varies more than our relatively low state sales tax rate. It’s bullshit.

      The same applies to Amazon.com. They’ve sent emails to all of their vendors in Colorado saying if this bill passes, we’re not doing business with you. It’s not even Amazon who has to pay, it’s the consumer. Amazon is protesting because they think they have an advantage in consumer perception. I think they basically have a monopoly on the market and they’re throwing their weight around.

      This is just typical form for corporate bullies. And it ticks me off that junk mail has been tax exempt while we’ve been cutting education.

      There are many tax exemptions that Owens handed out to his buddies during the boom years. I’d like to get a hold of that list and get some explanations about why tuition has to go up while bull semen doesn’t carry its **ahem** load.  

      1. The state dosen’t receive the revenue it rightly should because of loopholes; couple that with a recession and you have a budgetary deficit.

        So what’s the Republican answer to get us out of this mess ?

        More loopholes !  

        The idea that Pepsi is going to pack up and leave Colorado for a few cents a six pack is just so fucking completely ridiculous. Is Colorado Springs really the model of good governace that we are aspiring to ?  If Scott McInnis is who you support for governor, then yes.

        Pay your fair share !  This is institutionalized corporate scofflaw behavior at its best.

    2. on the energy used for manufacturing. The bill that ends that free ride is what has really ticked off Republican Senators.

      Like I’ve said before, if manufacturers are struggling so much that they really can’t afford to pay 2.7% on energy, then they’ve got bigger problems. And they do have bigger problems! Manufacturing jobs have been fleeing the country because of our laws and our thirst for cheap crap that gives us our “freedom of choice”. It’s been the arbitrarily used mantra of free and open markets that has been used against the public good. Arbitrary in part because here we are, trying to make it a level playing field by making them pay state taxes like we pay, and they’re screaming they’re going to die.

      I don’t doubt there is an effect, but I do doubt the rationality of the Republican philosophy that holds no water now because historically they’ve waffled. They don’t ever play by their own rules.

      God bless our way of life.

  2. The $300 million O&G tax credit that Bill Ritter tried to address with A-58. Is it politically untenable because the voters shot it down in ’08? It seems like people keep talking about all of these budget shortfalls being around $300 million. Well, Pepsi can keep theirs since McInnis is so concerned with them, if he just gets his buddies at COGA to start paying their fair share.

    1. voted no because they didn’t understand it.

      And lotsa things got voted no before they passed, no one complains about Tabor needing more than one try.

      What we should do is get ex-Governor Palin to come to Colorado and explain how they do severance taxes on O&G in Alaska, and how every Alaskan gets a check and there’s no state income tax.  I don’t need no talkn’ about secceedin and stuff- but a CO permanent fund would be wicked cool.

    2. that would take that on but of course the majority is what’s at stake. It’s not re-election, but the majority that’s at stake.

      There are some scary fuckers on the block, and O&G is the Large Marge of them.  

      1. i’m proud of you for being able to speak intelligently to all of this.  these are super tough issues and whereas it might seem like a no-brainer for you and i (close the fucking loopholes, jeez) for republicans and small biz owners and pepsi workers being threatened every day by their corporate HQs to contact legislators or “lose their jobs” it’s super duper scary.  insofar as you and i know a 2% increase in pepsi won’t change anyone’s mind (refer to Sen. Johnston’s comments during the Senate 2nd reading on the candy/soda bill) the workers and everyday consumers watching the 10 o’clock news see a commercial for this and even in the messaging they’re lying through their teeth.  who in their right minds considers candy and pepsi to be “food” anyway?

      1. I also think the fact that it was at the end of the ballot, along with the fact that Ritter’s team did a terrible job selling it to the voters, combined to doom what could have gone a long way to drastically helping the state’s finances.

      2. which is why it can’t be shouldered by legislative Dems. They would lose the majority because what is it to O&G to dump another $11,000,000.00 or more into buying the few competitive seats? I’ll tell you what it would be: it would be less than their state tax break, that’s what!

        Yippee!  

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