If today’s GOP has one unshakable article of faith, it is that taxing the rich retards economic growth; that even the most modest tax increase will dissuade the “makers” from, well, making –hiring, expanding, or working harder.
So–how to explain why the Indiana General Assembly, which is lopsidedly and unequivocally Republican, piles taxes on the state’s rich counties and redistributes that money to the poor ones?
As a friend of mine whose research is focused upon the Indiana economy recently noted, Indiana heavily taxes its “rich” metropolitan counties–Marion County prominently among them–for the benefit of rural counties with dramatically dwindling populations. A study by the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute found that the 10 counties that make up the Indianapolis metropolitan area were major donors to rural Indiana; residents here paid 33.5 percent, or $4.6 billion, of total state taxes and received 28 percent, or $3.8 billion, back.
I guess a welfare state is in the eye of the beholder. The (rural) home counties of so many state lawmakers couldn’t explain this very un-Republican impulse for redistribution…could it? Surely this deviation from such a core belief–or the “core belief” itself–couldn’t be based upon self-interest.
Ah, irony. Thy name is Indiana.
Is the result the same when the divide is urban and rural?
The idea that tax relief for the wealthy promotes business growth more than tax relief for the middle class does is a completely bogus Republican fabrication. This rich guy explains it much better than I.
http://youtu.be/bBx2Y5HhplI
As a farmer in one of the welfare counties I just got my assessment for property taxes and they’re up 15% this year.
Is there anywhere in the America where the flow is not from blue to red? Seems like the best way to obtain rewards is to vote red.