SC Senate Leader: Grocery Tax Hike On The Table
By FITSNews || One of South Carolina’s top “Republican” Senate leaders said that lawmakers were considering bringing back the state sales tax on groceries in an effort to raise revenue for state government.
State Sen. Larry Martin (RINO – Pickens) made the remarks at a Pickens County Taxpayers’ Association meeting last Thursday, a gathering from which he somehow managed to emerge un-tarred and un-feathered.
From the Anderson Independent-Mail:
Martin said that the loss of revenue resulting from the elimination of sales tax on food has cost the state “a steady source of income.”
“No one wants to reinstitute the sales tax on groceries, but we have to look at all options during this dire economic situation,” he said. “Our overall situation is not good.”
First of all, it’s pretty pathetic that lawmakers are blaming the grocery tax repeal for South Carolina’s current revenue shortfall – as if the two-year national recession and chronic overspending by GOP leaders that preceded (and accompanied) that recession had nothing at all to do with the problem.
It’s also pretty pathetic that the Anderson Independent-Mail (a.k.a. the Tin Foil Hat Times) would fail to investigate Martin’s claim a little more thoroughly.
For starters, while the so-called “elimination of the grocery tax” is a favorite target of RINO politicians like Martin – they were the ones who pushed it through the legislature four years ago as a sop to Democrats who were uneasy with their boneheaded property tax/ sales tax swap.
In fact, one of the biggest RINO whiners over all of this “lost revenue” is none other than Sen. Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman – who three years ago was busily touting the grocery tax cut as “The Leatherman Plan.”
“I believe very strongly that people should not be taxed on the food that they must have,” Leatherman told the Savannah Morning News in October of 2007.
But was “The Leatherman Plan” really a tax cut for poor people?
Of course not.
Lawmakers cut the tax on groceries, but to make up for it they raised the the sales tax on everything else. So once again, it wasn’t a “tax cut” so much as it was a “tax swap” – or a “revenue neutral tax realignment” in bureaucratic parlance.
But it’s not just the political hypocrisy of RINO tax-and-spenders like Martin and Leatherman that’s so sad, it’s the fact that they would even think about raising the grocery tax in an economy like this one – or any economy for that matter.
Lawmakers need to cut government, not raise people’s grocery bills.
Comments
By Cooter Brown on January 25th, 2010 at 9:33 am
Reckon it neba occurred t’ em t’ quit a spendin’ whut day alreadie haz on foolishness lik th’ rest ov us gots t’ doo when times iz touf…
By cerius on January 25th, 2010 at 9:33 am
Alcohol sales are soaring. Let’s increase the alcohol tax! There is something unsavory about taxing staples such as bread and eggs and baby food…
Then again, state government would rather tax hard-working people to death than cut its payrolls…
Maybe the state should consider selling a fraction of it’s hundreds of thousands of acres of land instead of TAXING FOOD…
By Ynotfirst on January 25th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Lawmakers should start by not taking a salary this year.
Let them “feeeeel” the pinch that every other citizen feels.
Sic, did they vote themselves a raise lately??
By Liberty For Me on January 25th, 2010 at 10:11 am
I have a tax swap to purpose.Let me purpose that we swap half the taxes we already have for the jobs of half the bureaucrats we do not need.
Any increase in taxes at a time like this is crazy.But I know this is how these morons are taught to think..They have no gray matter to try to comprehend how to cut spending or reduce the governments role in our lives.
Food has already had 10% inflation in the past year…How much more are we going to put up with?
By James F. on January 25th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Most of these lawmakers have other jobs and do not need the salary and the perks that go with the job but they take it. You have lawyers who make hundreds of thousands of dollars because of their connections with the legislature dealing especially in lawsuits concerning W/C,holding up criminal cases because they have the connections and some that coach and make a hundred thousand a year while double dipping which would look like a conflict of intrest. But the rest of you po folks will just have to learn to cut back and live within your means.
By Ron on January 25th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Will,
We have this appointed TRAC commission to reform the tax code. As you know the problem with their commission is that the lawmakers took act 388 “off the table”. In my view the Trac Commissioners should walk away “from the table” and tell the lawmakers “we’ll consider coming back when Act 388 is back on the table”.
It’s interesting to note that the penny sales tax increase in Act 388 seems to be permanent but the corresponding grocery tax decrease and property tax decrease seem to be very temporary. Imagine that!!! SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE!! LOL
By Crooner on January 25th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Let’s wait until Boeing has its plant built and assembly lines set up and then switch and tax the hell outta them!
By countryboy on January 25th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Since most of the political fallout recently has been Democrats losing to Republicans, I guess the idiot Republicans in our Legislature think they are immune. They must think South Carolinians and Americans in general are going to automatically vote against Democrats in November. Not going to happen, in my opinion. What is going to happen is voters voting against members of both parties who are not doing the right thing, like cutting spending instead increasing taxation. But then I could be wrong, I never thought America would elect a Socialist President either.
By No Name on January 25th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
First I suggest some economic\political context for Larry… who was last seen leaving the meeting on a cell call with the still missing GOP state porn star Ms. Maquire.
1. Most of our economic problems – two unbudgeted wars…the Goldman Banksters bailout….TARP bailout…these are all Bush problems and Obama is stupid to leave the Bushies like Gates\Geithner\Bernake in place because they will cover and stop any correction.
2. Politically the Obama\Summer inspired stimulus…which did nothing more than protect Democratic base jobs like teachers and local government Mafia….. started a year ago and even the MSM’s love for Obama dictates that they now give the economy too Obama.
3. The Newspaper industry depression, Fox’s News ratings surge and Comcast’s take over of NBC will begin the end of Obama’s highly valuable MSM air cover.
This is best experienced with the following link.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/mzuckerman/2010/01/21/mort-zuckerman-the-incredible-deflation-of-barack-obama.html?PageNr=1
This buyers remorse will severely effect Obama…… who has never played with any significant rush……expect him to fumble badly under the pressure. Not good for any solution whether you like him politically or not.
4. The State GOP leadership….. not related to Columbia’s ongoing and future cover-ups… Dawson\Wilkins\Miliken\Graham\Floyd…need to decide what they are going to do about the Ron Paul\Tea Party in SC.
With some deft skill…. they can let them loose to cure the Columbia mess by exposing it and the Budget and Controll Board cover ups to come…..
Politicians do not understand what to do in a revenue crisislike this …which is prioritize for the people….not for friends.
5. Joe Wilson will need to get a megaphone for the State of the Union adress because of all the lies that this administration has been selling to everyone:
a. The Bubble that the bankersters have caused in equities as a sop and smokescreen to the little people for some type of good news. A Bubble that only continues if Bernake is re-appointed and the fraud of the Fed continues.
b. All the national economic info from November and the growth facts that Gibby lied about on Fox are all now being quietly reset by NBER.
We are headed for a complete and utter depression that will eliminate State revenue.
c. Jobs data ….what was saved….I never heard the word “save”… I only heard “to be created”.
6. If the Clinton’s can convince Obama to stay on healthcare…we are doomed. The healthcare confusion was concieved to put Hilary back in office and rape lobbyists for campaign cash.
Proud citizens of SC ….take a lesson from the equally historical State of Taxachuesetts …..a State which finally threw off the shackles of King Kennedy and showed that even they could change course.
Tar and feather any politician….. that even breathes any new tax program
like Larry’s regardless of what church they go to or how mightily they claim to be against abortion.
We have to look at the State Budget and start today….. a program of survivial…because that is what we will need to focus on …survival.
Leatherman\Cooper\Chellis… it is up to you now…can you do the right thing.
We are in uncharted territory…. being led by a bright guy who is over his head and who is being advised by equally immature folks and those that want Hilary in 2012….not a great recipe.
By Katherine Jenerette on January 25th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
FROM ABOVE:
“No one wants to reinstitute the sales tax on groceries, but we have to look at all options during this dire economic situation,” he said. “Our overall situation is not good.”
This should always be RULE #1 and Option A in the ‘How-To-Govern-Good’ Handbook for elected officials: If there is a loss of revenue resulting from any cause which has cost the state a steady source of income do the following:
‘Thou shalt cut the size of the State or Federal government.’
Amen for now – Katherine
By CNChapin on January 25th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Let’s hope they pass it so we’ll be justified for tarring and feathering them!
Cut the size of state government if you can’t pay for it. Better yet, stand up to the federal government and stop allowing them to unConstitutionally collect income taxes from the citizens of the state of South Carolina and there’ll be more money staying here in the state than they’ll know what to do with (at first).
It’s time to show these pompous people who really runs this state… We the people!
By Ron on January 26th, 2010 at 12:34 am
Will,
Are those Katherine’s Jeanerette’s legs in the above photo! Katherine Jeanerette for Congress 2010!!!
By I Like Ike on January 27th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Cutting the size of the federal or state government in tough economic times would be a good idea. It potentially could save money if the savings didn’t go to more no-bid contracts for favored businesses. A good place to save money would be in the military. The bloated officers’ ranks would be a good place to start. Officers make a whole lot more money than enlisted personnel. Enlisted personnel are the backbone of the military and do the real work. Without the enlisted personnel, D-Day never would have been successfully completed. The officers get the credit while it was the grunts who made it all happen. The grunts take less money and do more work. In the Abu Ghraib scandal, only the enlisted personnel were ever punished for obeying the commands of their superiors. The officers got off and the enlisted people were hung out to dry. If that is the physical consequence, let there be the monetary benefit of officers reduction in force. The sales tax on food is the most unfair tax next to extortion to buy health insurance that doesn’t pay. The poor are least able to afford a tax on food and in some cases it will cause the poor to buy even less food. Luxury taxes and 91% tax on the rich were good enough under the leader Eisenhower and they’re good enough for the uber-rich of today.