Regressive tax system won’t work

Knight Allen, Las Vegas

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 | 2:02 a.m.

Brian Greenspun may know a leader when he sees one (regarding his Sunday column in the Las Vegas Sun), but he still doesn’t seem to have a clue about how governments should raise money in a free society.

The tax plan put forth in 2003 by the Governor’s Task Force on Tax Policy was not “a good plan.” It was awful because its central proposal was an atrocity called the gross receipts tax. The gross receipts tax is a vicious assault on the people’s economic empowerment.

It taxes anything and everything indiscriminately and does so multiple times before the product or service even gets to the people who have to carry the burden of its dead weight. It attacks you in all those areas of your life where you must function just to survive (food, medical care, energy, housing).

It also is cruelly regressive, striking most heavily the poor, who spend the bulk, if not all, of their income on the necessities of life. We can all be grateful we had enough economically knowledgeable legislators in 2003 to kill the gross receipts tax.

I don’t know whether Terry Lanni is contemplating a run for governor, but for him and anyone else seeking or already holding public office, here’s a bit of classical liberal wisdom: You can’t build a fair, just, compassionate and free society on the rotten foundation of a cruel, vicious and regressive tax system.