I hate my home state

[kellinator]

http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/07/01/tennessee.budget.ap/index.html

The people affected include several of my friends who attend Tennessee colleges, high-school classmates who were laid off from their teaching jobs this past spring, and my mother, a secretary for the Department of Children's Service, who has been laid off this week.

I am so livid. Tennesseans in general are too fucking stupid to understand that they're paying one of the highest sales taxes in the nation, sales taxes are hardest on lower-income people, and an income tax, with a resulting reduction in the income tax, would probably save 90% of the rock-throwing horn-honking protesters outside the state capitol money. I was especially infuriated to hear they were screaming at college students demonstrating in favor of the income tax to "go get a job." Indicative of Tennessee's general attitude -- why work to improve yourself when you can drop out of high school, get a shitty job, and drink beer and watch UT thugball on the weekends?

Even worse, they're talking about booting the sales tax up to 9.25% (including food)until November, when voters will apparently vote on an income tax. Look, I believe in democracy, but it's obvious the voters are living in a never-never-land and don't understand what is necessary or even fair. Sometimes what's the best thing to do isn't the popular thing. Should we have had a referendum in the '60s to let the voters decide on integration? I think fucking not.

But then again, what do you expect from a state that spends millions to attract pro sports teams but next to nothing on education?

It's no fucking wonder Tennessee's such a joke -- and well on track to replacing Mississippi and Arkansas as the national laughingstock.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Sundquist is a paper tiger--he's had a long time to fix this, as TN has been slowly going bankrupt for a while. TN has a *spending problem*, with TennCare being the main culprit (This should serve as an illustration of how disasterous a HilaryCare plan would have been).

What the protesters are objecting to is the gov't coming back to the trough and saying "give us more, more, more" instead of reigning in inefficient programs and bloated beuracracy.

The Laubster's day off.

[laubster.livejournal.com]

Hey batabatabatabata swing bata!
They furlowed me at Tenncare. The new TENNCARE waiver doesn't look so bad it cuts down on a lot of services that are Tennessee specific.
Anyway this gave me time to clean my "love shack".

hey

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not the source of the anonymous post above, but I thought I would share some info with you. TN has what is called "the Hall tax", which means about 6% of investment gains on stocks and bonds go to the state, something that hits the rich much harder than the poor, clearly.

To date, all of the proposals to introduce an income tax include a quiet repeal of Hall tax. This is why disgraceful Sunquist and many rich favor an income tax. If the Hall tax goes away, burden will be shifted heavily to the middle class, which is what the legislature is protecting against when they keep prevent the income tax from passing. An income tax might be more fair in theory, but none that have been proposed fit that description because they involve repealing Hall.

Besides, states always promise to reduce sales tax if people accept an income tax. They know you're comfortable paying 6% sales tax, so they reduce it to 3% for a while so you'll swallow the income tax. Then, they slowly notch sales tax back up to where it was. People have fallen for this trick in about 40 states so far.

-Alan

GRRRR

[dawneywawney.livejournal.com]

What makes me so damn mad about it all is that the first thing they want to cut is TennCare. My infant daughter relies on TennCare. If it weren't for the State of Tennessee, she'd be without insurance. So, all you damned Republicans need to look her in the face and tell her that you want her to be without a safety net. Oh yes, we also rely on WIC for much of the food she eats each month. Tell me that we aren't contributing to society - My husband lost his job in February. I'm about to complete a degree in Computer Science and my husband is studying to become a college professor. So FUCK YOU.

Whew.

You know, we HAVE to have revenue. Yes, every opponent of the income tax harps on the fact that we need to cut spending. I can think of a good place to start... Let's get rid of the Titans, Predators, Nashville Super Speedway UT Football (we can keep Vandy athletics, because obviously they don't spend much on them, rofl.) You think that the State doesn't contribute heavily to these organizations??? WRRRRROOOONNNGGGG!

Then, lets cut out pork barrel, like the nice new high speed road running to Don Sundquist's summer home. Bet a couple of schools could stay open longer with that money.

Did you know that the State of Tennessee has the same economic rating that Enron had right before they filed bankruptcy? I agree that we need better spending, but FUCK! You've GOT to have money, folks! It's not rocket science.

This subject really riles me up, especially since I live in one of the poorest counties in Tennessee, yet somehow a heavily Republican one. These people live and die for the GOP, but whine and groan because our schools suck eggs. JEEBUS.