Fran Quigley is an attorney "working on local and international poverty issues." In an opinion piece for The Indianapolis Star, she says there are lots of other things the state could do instead of "handcuffing future generations" with a constitutional property tax cap and "cutting public education, health care for the disabled or other services" as a "last resort":
Like expanding the state's sales tax, which is our top source of revenue, to include more services.
[. . .]
Indiana's flat tax poses a horrible burden on our state finances.
[. . .]
And property taxes . . . to keep streets safe, schools open and garbage picked up. But have you noticed how angry voters get about property taxes
? Never mind that taxing an asset like property can be more fair and consistent than income and sales taxes.
You get the idea. The state never has to make all those cuts "as a last resort" when there are all those wonderful taxes to increase or extend or to make more progressive so the rich get soaked more. I suspect "working on poverty issues" means taking as much of my money as possible. I've been poor, and I'm sure exactly what a poverty "issue" is. All I knew was that I wanted to do everything possible to make sure I wouldn't stay poor, and, alas, Fran wasn't around to help me.
Comments
Be careful about karma, my friend. You work in an industry (and for a particular employer, to be perfectly frank about it) that is notorious for its layoffs. Those poor may not seem so undeserving when you suddenly find yourself among them. It happened to me. Your newspaper has already cut hourly workers' wages, and that's for the lucky few who haven't simply been let go. And you've had your pension yanked. I know these things, and I predicted them when Ogden bought your business. The personal and vacation days are next. Trust me. Oh, and how's your medical insurance doing?
As I said, I've been poor before. In case I am again, is that an offer I hear from you to help me out? Or can I just send the nearest government official to pick your pocket on my behalf?
leo, my guess is he's (littlejohn) cool with that government official picking pockets on your behalf because he (littlejohn)falls in that 40-50% bracket that doesn't pay taxes anyway.
...Betcha Fran Quigley is mainatining an arm's length from "Dick the Butcher", too...!
;)
If you're not being sarcastic, of course I would help any of you should you need it. I hope any decent person would. I trust any of you would help me, if I were in a bind.
But I don't know everyone in the country, and they don't know me.
I have no problem using the government as an intermediary to help us all do what I assume we all would be willing to do. Of course the government is often inefficient. I read the same stories you do about NASA's thousand-dollar toilet seats.
I just don't see the humane alternative.
Leo, through the miracle of Google Alerts, I got a notice that you referenced my column.
Actually, I am a "he" and I work representing poor Hoosiers through Indiana Legal Services and also with the IU-Kenya Partnership which cares for sick and poor people in Africa. (All that makes for a long tagline, hence the abbreviated and more abstract description you puzzled over.)
And yes, I am very OK with increasing the taxes on rich Hoosiers if the alternative is to short-change kids in public schools or people with disabilities who need health care. Hard choices indeed, but I think they are far better choices than reflexively saying that all taxes are evil.
Thanks for referencing my column.
Be careful, Fran, you're dealing with a True Believer who wants to abolish the IRS and privatize the fire department. Or something.
Oh, sorry to hear that. I liked your explanation that taxes support the compassionate response to suffering that we all would do personally if that was logistically possible. Government is not "them," government is "us."