Pearce: No New Taxes! (except we want to give less to the cities, so they’ll have to raise taxes)

by David Safier

I'll never forget the way my mouth dropped open at President Reagan's answer when he was asked what the states are going to do if the feds lower their grants to the states, which is what Ronnie wanted to do. Without blinking an eye, he said, "I guess the states will have to raise their taxes." Just that simple. An anti-tax conservative stays pure by passing the taxes down the road.

Our own Russell Pearce seems to be cut from the same cloth. He wants to reduce the amount of state revenue that goes to the cities. What are the cities supposed to do? According to Pearce, raise taxes. Here's the quote.

"We're the guys who get beat up for it [collecting taxes, then sending the money to the cities], so one of the things that's been talked about – and I'm not trying to take any of their money away – I would reduce that portion of state revenue and let them raise their own revenue," he said. "I think that's something that needs to be considered."

Beautiful. Pearce doesn't want to take any money away from the cities. He just wants to give them less and have them make up the difference by raising taxes.

Here's what that means. If the state disburses less tax revenues to cities, it keeps more for itself. By raising the percentage of taxes it keeps, it's actually raising the level of state tax revenue. So in a dollars-and-cents sense, the state is raising taxes. And that's what it means to taxpayers: higher taxes.