It is always amusing to read people’s letters bleating for a state income tax. Forty-one states have an income tax and all but two or three states, are in the red, including our neighbors to the north and south. Connecticut was the last state to enact an income tax to balance their budget, and they have been in the red ever since.
For 50 years, Wyoming has had a stream of revenue from severance taxes and if our governors and legislators had shown fiscal restraint and discipline, we would be sitting on a mountain of capital in savings with interest. But instead the legislators went the drunken sailor route and expanded the state government far beyond what was necessary, added new departments, hired too many school administrators, built Taj Mahals, called schools at $300 to $400 per square foot, which we couldn’t afford to maintain after construction.
I don’t think the working people of Wyoming should pay for their mistakes, and desire for power.
Writers talk about the people paying their fair share, but never put a dollar amount on it. I have paid my fair share to Wyoming and here’s how I did it. My wife and I decided to private school our children, which can be done very economically and affordable. By doing that, we saved the State of Wyoming over $700,000 by not using the state schools. The tax advocates have a long way to go to catch up with me.
A few months ago, I discovered that Wyoming has over 5,000 nonprofits in the state. Nonprofits exist on “unearned income” or donations. Instead of taxing the “earned income” of the working people, let’s start taxing the “unearned income” of nonprofits. Wyoming could just take about 10% of what’s in their bank accounts for starters and see how far that goes. There are some pretty wealthy non-profits in Wyoming. You do understand that there is no such thing as a “Nonprofit” entity in reality. They are simply non-taxable entities, but nonprofit sounds so much more politically correct and socially acceptable
Tom Schmit
Laramie
501 3C orgs have stretched boundaries too far.