Monkey Mail

Sometimes I get so fed up with how goddamn stupid some people are. In a recent post comparing Georgia's taxes to Massachusetts, I clearly pointed out that according to the rather not left wing Tax Foundation, Georgia's overall state and local tax burden, as a percentage of income, was substantially higher than that of "Taxachusetts." In addition, the again not left Tax Foundation says that Mass. had a much more favorable climate for business.

Today I get this email:

Atrios is a statistical cherry picker.

>From the Tax Foundation

Corporate Income Taxes Georgia 10th lowest - Mass 6th highest. (not all
states levy corporate income taxes)

Gasoline Taxes - Georgia lowest in nation - 50th, Mass 21st

Property Taxes (per capita) - Georgia 29th - Mass 7th

Sales Taxes - Georgia 30th -- Mass 29th

Cigarette Taxes - Georgia 44th -- Mass 1st

In our lovely federal system, individual state and local governments have great flexibility with respect to how they choose to raise revenue, both in the particular tax instruments they use and in the relative share raised by state versus local municipalities. Some states rely more heavily on some instruments than others, and the degree to which local governments are responsible for raising their own revenue is also going to have an impact on which taxes tend to be higher or lower.

But, here's the deal, oh future Nobel prize winner -- only in the fevered groping dreams of a wingnut could this bit of correspondence be thought to "refute" in any way what I wrote.