You are a part of the legislator of a large well-populated state with a few small towns and one big vibrant city. Due to excessive borrowing by previous administrations, and due to a poor economy, you're having an awful time balancing the state budget. You already cut hundreds of thousands of dollars from transportation, education and other expenses, but the budget is still short. Cutting more spending is not an option. You need to raise taxes. The two taxes that you have the best chance of passing are:
- A tax on sugary beverages, that is a sin-tax for unhealthy sodas. Progressive do-gooders think it will help the population get more healthy while bringing in much needed revenue. A loud lobby keeps saying it is regressive and that it will hurt the poor. They have purchased numerous TV spots.
- A tax on all clothing purchases that are LESS THAN $110. This tax used to exist and was repealed, much to the delight of the locally based but not politically powerful garment industry (your state has a big garment industry consisting of thousands of small businesses) Progressives say it is regressive since modest clothing purchases are something all poor families must make, especially those with growing kids.
Ok, which tax would you pick? Why?
Guess what NYS legislator picked?
Faced with heavy lobbying from the soda industry (Big Sugar? LOL?) the wise men in Albany have decided to tax CLOTHING purchases that are less that $110 since a soda tax is "regressive" and would "hurt the poor" (clothing purchases over $110 were already taxed) --But, I guess poor people don't wear clothing. I don't even know anymore. The truth is the sugared drink industry has better and more numerous lobbyists than the garment industry. That's all that matters. Nothing to see here people.
I often butt heads with other progressive about measures like the the soda tax. They say it's regressive, and paternalistic etc. They might even be right about some of those things, but in the end our elected officials are not making decisions from anything resembling a place of enlightenment where how regressive a tax might be would even matter. What I left out of this story was the fact that a tax cut for hedge fund managers which they considered removing stays in place... touching THAT was never really on the table. (There are fears that the fund might decamp for another state... maybe the fears are justified. I don't know. I don't see why we can't talk about it.) The point here, is that my legislator is broken even though it's Democrats and I don't know what to do. On the national level I'm proud of the Democrats we have in New York, but on the local level I'm tempted to look for another party. They always REJECT the progressive reforms that I support most.
They listen to lobbyists not the people. They talk about "stopping regressive taxes" but they don't give a damn about what those words really mean. I'm sick of it. Every few years someone says they will "clean up Albany" but it only get worse.
I thought I'd give you a glimpse of the kind of stupidity that gets NYC progressives to vote for people like Bloomberg. (who is not perfect at all) --Because, we have this same kind of thing on the city-level they use liberal-populist memes like "regressive tax" to give cover to the fact that they are just acting based on which lobbyist lined their pocket the most... or what TV ad slogan will sound best. They don't care if a tax is regressive!
I don't know, an easy way out other than not letting the cynicism grip me and and continuing on writing protesting and generally not shutting up about what I think my government should be doing. Some of the time the progressives in this town feel divided. It's easy, the politicians are smart as snakes and they know how to sell their ideas using the liberal ideology that so many of us support. I wish I had a knife that could slice through BS. I wish it was easier to tell what was really going on.