Is the state income tax really 7% (Minneapolis: crime, school districts, quality of life)

[MSMCGirl]

Originally Posted by southernsmoke

Non sequitur (logic) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Non sequitur? I think not. Sorry if I offended you, "southern"smoke.

[moving123456]

Governor Mark Dayton recently attempted to set the top MN state income tax rate at 13.95%, the highest in the country.

[retinoid]

Originally Posted by MSMCGirl

When I moved here from California my income tax when up. So did my quality of life. You get what you pay for. The lowest taxed states have the lowest quality of life (but let's not get into politics).

So you are saying if you live in Boston you should have a lower quality of life than Minneapolis? And if you live in Florida or Texas or New Hampshire then you should REALLY expect a lower quality of life since there are no state income taxes Living in NYC you should have an amazing quality of life since you pay state and city taxes. Let's raise state income taxes to 100% to optimize quality of lives! yay!

[Blue Earth]

It seems to me that Minnesota is some kind of living proof of the fallacy of the notion that higher taxes hurt the economy. Right now the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area has an unemployment rate of 6.3%. The only metro area with a larger population that has a lower unemployment rate is Washington, DC, and that is only because of all the government jobs in that area. Minneapolis-St. Paul's economy is one of the healthiest major city economies in the country.

Furthermore, if you look at other statewide metro areas like St. Cloud, Mankato, and Rochester, as well as metro areas that include portions of Minnesota like La Crosse and Fargo, those metro areas also have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Mankato unemployment is 5.1%. Rochester is 5.4%.

In case you did not notice yesterday, the nationwide unemployment rate is 9.2%.

Minnesota has the nation's largest privately held company, Cargill. It has some of the nation's best public companies like Best Buy, Target, UnitedHealth Group, 3M, Xcel Energy, US Bank, and General Mills. These companies do not seem to be suffering at all due to supposed high taxes in Minnesota. Minnesota's unemployment rate does not seem to be suffering due to high taxes.

It seems to me that high taxes have not hurt Minnesota's economy. The GOP is constantly demagoguing with scare tactics about how higher taxes will drive away jobs and hurt the economy. It hasn't happened in Minnesota. If high taxes haven't hurt Minnesota's economy after all these years, it looks to me like the demagoguing about taxes is just a scare tactic. How long has Minnesota been one of the highest tax states in the country and yet here it is in this recession having one of the best economies. This argument that higher taxes hurts the economy is a fallacy. Minnesota is a perfect example of it.

You know what actually hurts the economy in Minnesota is Republicans shutting down the government because they can't get their tax cuts and spending cuts. That has probably caused more bad publicity and more harm to businesses in Minnesota than the claim about high taxes.

[west336]

Originally Posted by southernsmoke

Non sequitur (logic) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

southernsmoke.....nobody agrees with your "the South is better" here and never will (unless they're on the way out).

[west336]

Originally Posted by retinoid

So you are saying if you live in Boston you should have a lower quality of life than Minneapolis? And if you live in Florida or Texas or New Hampshire then you should REALLY expect a lower quality of life since there are no state income taxes Living in NYC you should have an amazing quality of life since you pay state and city taxes. Let's raise state income taxes to 100% to optimize quality of lives! yay!

I have a better idea: let's LOWER taxes and let only the rich enjoy good services like healthcare and schools and roads and let the poor, middle-class/working-class scramble for the tiny remainder! Oh wait, I forgot, you can get all these services with practically NO money, right (or much less than what we're being taxed)?

Good luck with that!

[retinoid]

Originally Posted by west336

I have a better idea: let's LOWER taxes and let only the rich enjoy good services like healthcare and schools and roads and let the poor, middle-class/working-class scramble for the tiny remainder! Oh wait, I forgot, you can get all these services with practically NO money, right (or much less than what we're being taxed)?

Good luck with that!

Um.....you do realize the 7% income tax is on the middle class/working class? So if you didn't have that 7% income tax how is that going to help out the rich and hurt the middle/working class

[southernsmoke]

Originally Posted by west336

southernsmoke.....nobody agrees with your "the South is better" here and never will (unless they're on the way out).

Red herring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seriously, Minnesotans apparently love to justify their sky-high tax burden by pretending that it must mean that Minnesotans have better lives than people in states that are actually run efficiently.

[MSMCGirl]

Originally Posted by retinoid

So you are saying if you live in Boston you should have a lower quality of life than Minneapolis? And if you live in Florida or Texas or New Hampshire then you should REALLY expect a lower quality of life since there are no state income taxes Living in NYC you should have an amazing quality of life since you pay state and city taxes. Let's raise state income taxes to 100% to optimize quality of lives! yay!

Quote from WSJ story (http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/09/28/high-tax-states-still-grow-millionaires/): (broken link) "In fact, despite their very high taxes, the millionaire populations and the millionaire densities of Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, California and New York increased in 2010 from 2009. That suggests that the states gained more millionaires than they lost."..."in general, most high-net-worth households don’t base their living decision on tax rates, but on things like quality of life, access to good education, infrastructure and culture."

Coincidence? I think not. I DO think there can be some variances when you are in BIG cities (NYC, L.A., SFO, Boston) just due to population and demand for services. But generally speaking, higher taxes (income or otherwise) = improved quality of life.

[Mr Maps]

southernsmoke discovered Wikipedia today