Montgomery County in Maryland is not exactly a hotbed of free market thinking or a bastion of limited government.
It’s one of the richest counties in the nation, but not because of entrepreneurship and wealth creation. Instead, it’s a bedroom community filled with over-paid bureaucrats, corrupt lobbyists, fat-cat contractors, and other ne’er-do-wells who commute into Washington and live off the blood, sweat, and tears of people in the economy’s productive sector.
To give you an idea of its political leanings, Obama won 72 percent of the vote in Montgomery County in 2008 and all nine members of the County Council are Democrats.
So you wouldn’t think this is a place where lawmakers ever have anything sensible to say about tax policy. But, lo and behold, one Councilman recognizes that there’s no Berlin Wall surrounding the County. As such, higher tax rates may not generated additional tax revenue if people vote with their feet...article continues at link below...
Monday, August 6, 2012
George Leventhal Should Teach Paul Krugman about Public Finance and the Economics of Taxation
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Oh my. Leventhal placed side by side with praise for the Laffer curve. I'm not sure how proud he'd be about that.
ReplyDeleteCato constantly ignores the fact that revenue ALSO declines when taxes go LOWER than the optimum point. If that weren't true, we would get the maximum revenue from a 0% tax rate which is mathematically impossible.
Even if the tax rate is microscopic, there is SOME point at which lowering taxes further will reduce revenue.
It's all well and good that Leventhal keeps the Laffer curve in mind, but I certainly hope Parents Coalition has not become an advocate for conservative propaganda.
Everyone should acquaint themselves with this important macroeconomics phenomenon here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve
It's been grossly oversimplified by VERY vested interests.
We posted a link. Go to the Cato Institute and comment if you want to respond to their piece citing George Leventhal.
DeleteI too wondered why PC is giving a platform for this progaganda - it's not about what's going on in MCPS, so you can't just say "we posted a link". Taxes are the lowest in decades, yet the economy is in the tank, well, improving a bit the farther away we get from the Bush years. But I guess that the voice of just one ne'er do well who commuted to DC. As a public worker I served justice, made a FRACTION of what I would have in the private sector (hardly overpaid), and helped nail some people who were swindling retirees. Huh.
ReplyDeleteWell, if you live in a box then you can ignore what our elected officials say and do.
DeleteBut, for the rest of the County the positions of our elected officials have a direct effect on how MCPS is run, whether or or not there is overight over MCPS, and how money is spent and allocated. The positions and opinions of our County Councilmembers can, and do impact MCPS. This is one big County, run by one County Council.
Perfect example: Every time you read an article about the Montgomery County Council and their opinions about PEPCO, insert MCPS. Our County Council members could be speaking out just as loudly about how MCPS is run, how funding is allocated, how students are bullied and denied a free public education etc... They COULD be speaking up on behalf of children, holding hearings, starting Petitions. But children don't vote and so our elected officials ignore their serious issues.
Yes, while anonymous posters whine about salaries, public school children in Montgomery County can be locked in a closet with an adult for 30 minutes and not a single public official has spoken up on behalf of that child. Where's the hearing? Where's the inquiry? Where's the Petition?
DeleteMr. Jacobs, the Cato Institute is not a conservative organization, it is a libertarian one. In fact, internally there has been a struggle between the members committed to libertarian thought and the Koch brothers, who as we all know, are very conservative, and who heavily fund the organization. See http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/292385/koch-brothers-fight-over-cato-institute-brian-bolduc and http://philanthropy.com/blogs/philanthropytoday/koch-brothers-settle-ownership-fight-with-cato-institute/49057 for more on the internal struggles of the Institute.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Parents' Coalition and what we blog about, here's the beauty part: we can blog about anything we want to.
It's really important for administrators in MCPS to be able to lock students in closets.
ReplyDelete