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It's important because many lower-middle folks are paying most of their annual taxes to things like sales and property (imputed via rent) so federal income tax is relatively minor in that income niche discussion.
Once the democrats in California bow to public employee union demands to kill Prop 13, it wont be them. Sad that everything has to be specified as an either/or choice.
Local taxes are what they are. If there is no State income tax, they usually collect it in other forms like property taxes.
Even so, most states with no state income tax have some sort of major income source like tourism in FL that makes their TOTAL tax burden lower than most states.
Local taxes, as many of my relatives in IL have found out, can skyrocket when a cash-strapped state stops sending as much money to those localities for some things making them have to close those gaps.
GOP gets them with regressive taxes like sales tax.
Dems get them with other taxes.
Too rich for benefits
Too poor for luxuries.
Is it your assertion that Dems are against sales taxes and other regressive taxes? I dont know about your state, but in NJ, it is usually democrats that raise those taxes. The republicans are usually against raising any taxes.
But for the sake of argument, if both parties are for sales taxes and other local taxes, but the democrats are for higher income taxes while the republicans are for lower income taxes, doesn't that make the GOP more tax friendly toward the lower-middle class?
I think that a lot of that is driven by the cost of living.
For example, if you need to hire a school teacher it costs less in Alabama than in NY but people make more so the local tax could be the same %. However, when you need a new city work truck and a water filtration system etc. those cost the same more or less and the town in Alabama would need a higher % tax to generate that amount.
You can also introduce an argument like State A has higher taxes but it also has better schools or healthcare programs so there is an associated benefit.
That's really the core issue.
Are there places where the "working class" are getting forced to pay more than their fair share commensurate to the benefit that they're getting in return?
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