Why Can’t Delaware Tax the Rich More Like New York Plans on Doing?
Instead of taxing Delaware state employees through a 10% wage cut, why doesn’t Gov. Jack Markell follow the example of Gov. David Patterson in New York?
Gov. David A. Paterson and leaders of the Legislature have reached a deal to raise taxes on New York’s highest earners in order to close the state’s yawning budget deficit, lawmakers and officials involved in the negotiations said on Saturday.
If Gov. Markell is more worried about offending the rich than he apparently is of offending poorly paid state employees, he could follow Gov. Patterson’s example and make the increase temporary:
The plan would raise $4 billion a year by creating two new tax brackets on high earners, an increase that would expire after three years.
Just make a couple new brackets for high income earners like New York plans to do:
Currently, New York’s highest tax rate, 6.85 percent, kicks in for couples and joint filers making more than $40,000. Under the plan, the highest bracket would start at $500,000 with a rate of 8.97 percent — the same as New Jersey’s current highest rate. A lower rate of 7.85 percent would apply to incomes over $300,000.
While Gov. Markell plans to slash the wages of state employees by 10%, he only plans to raise taxes on the well-to-do by 1%. But It makes more sense to tax more those who can afford it, the rich, than it does to take 10% of the wages of those who make less than, say, $30,000 a year. But it could be that Gov. Markell’s intention is to subsidize only a low tax increase for the rich by slashing the wages of struggling state employees.
______________________
