{"id":240,"date":"2006-10-11T11:48:51","date_gmt":"2006-10-11T16:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2006\/10\/11\/tax-the-poor\/"},"modified":"2006-10-11T23:51:40","modified_gmt":"2006-10-12T04:51:40","slug":"tax-the-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/10\/tax-the-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax the Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Replace the grocery tax; don’t repeal it. (This is an Arkansas Brick<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

It’s not too late to put in your 6 cents’ worth — that’s the amount of state sales tax in Arkansas, before municipalities add on theirs.<\/p>\n

Nothing can happen until the Legislature convenes in January, but various state candidates are leapfrogging over one another in their intent to exempt groceries from the sales tax.<\/p>\n

A number of other states exempt groceries from the tax, but the exemption usually then has exemptions. The poor should grill their own steaks and not dine at Sizzlin.<\/p>\n

Serving time in a California university in the late 1970s, this made for a little game at a Palo Alto ice cream parlor for some friends. Eating the cones inside cost more than specifying them as take-out, due to the tax take. Until the clerks got wise to us, we’d order our sweets to-go then sit at a table.<\/p>\n

According to this Wikipedia summary<\/a>, California excludes food except for “food sold hot or consumed on the premises,” and Colorado defines groceries as “unprepared food.” Think how messy those can get, which seem to be relatively simple sets of regulations. What will Little Rock do?<\/p>\n

The whole idea is to help the poor. Cut them a slack where, theoretically, we can.<\/p>\n

Back in California at the end of September, I saw that the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> cost 44 cents on news stands. Unlike Arkansas, newspapers there are subject to sales tax. (Yes, the Chron<\/em> ended up costing an even four bits.)<\/p>\n

If the Arkansas Press Association<\/a> wanted mucho leverage to strengthen Open Records and Open Meetings, it should tell the Lege:<\/p>\n

Go ahead and tax us. Really, it’s not much trouble. We’ll just take 5 minutes to adjust our bookkeeping software.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

An across-the-board grocery sales tax exemption is easy to support, with the treasury in Little Rock having a surplus. Of course in this poor state, a surplus means having two dimes to rub together instead of two nickels. But, the surplus is temporary, being dependent on a fluctuating economy.<\/p>\n

Even with better-than-expected revenue, the state needs more and better roads, and education still needs even more money. Speaking of schools, a steady tax base means more cops in the halls.<\/p>\n

No hungry Arkansan has starved to death for want of a few pennies on the dollar for a loaf of bread.<\/p>\n

If our consciences require us to create a grocery sales tax exemption, let the Legislature first bulk up revenue from elsewhere. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Replace the grocery tax; don’t repeal it. (This is an Arkansas Brick.) It’s not too late to put in your 6 cents’ worth — that’s the amount of state sales tax in Arkansas, before municipalities add on theirs. Nothing can happen until the Legislature convenes in January, but various state candidates are leapfrogging over one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":262,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/01\/cast-bread-upon-the-voters\/","url_meta":{"origin":240,"position":0},"title":"Cast bread upon the voters","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not fair to blow up a quotation of a state legislator, even adding context to show that he or she probably did mean it the way it sounded. But when remarks fall into your lap, courtesy of alert journalists, who can resist? I have written previously about opposing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":276,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/02\/half-a-loaf\/","url_meta":{"origin":240,"position":1},"title":"Half a Loaf","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"OK. Maybe it is a brilliant political maneuver, new Gov. Mike Beebe's vow to cut the sales tax on groceries in Arkansas. It has given him several advantages. Meanwhile, the state is among the poorest in the Union, and reducing even an inherently unfair tax will tax what feeble services\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":281,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/02\/cut-wont-buy-a-cup\/","url_meta":{"origin":240,"position":2},"title":"Cut Won’t Buy a Cup","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We have yet another charity that we can help for pennies a day. Yes, friends for just over $1 a week, you can feed an Arkansas legislator's soul. He or she will feel satisfied now and for two more years, for having fulfilled a campaign promise. You can keep the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3084,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/08\/spread-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":240,"position":3},"title":"Spread It","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Facebook often is positive, and rightfully so. A Brick from 11 months ago supported that: The Future Just Showed Up: Like. Facebook is not all feel-good happy talk but controversy and deliberate negativity get moved down and out quickly -- posts get \"hidden\" and friends become \"unfriended.\" My last weekend\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Loose Talk of the Town"","block_context":{"text":"Loose Talk of the Town","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/loose-talk-of-town\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":231,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/09\/no-pox-on-this-tax\/","url_meta":{"origin":240,"position":4},"title":"No Pox on This Tax","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A pox of this tax, or a tax of this pox, (twist of Falstaff's line of Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 2) We should, as these editorials all attest, vote \"yes\" to all four of Fayetteville's tiny tax increases. Northwest Arkansas Times, and the Demzette. Should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":360,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/09\/no-gaming-without-representation\/","url_meta":{"origin":240,"position":5},"title":"No Gaming Without Representation","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.\" -- \"Gordon Gekko,\" Wall Street, as quoted in imdb.com Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock If \"greed is good,\" as the fictional financier Gordon Gekko\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}