Consumption Tax Myths
As Governor Pillen and the Nebraska Unicameral start throwing around tax reform ideas, I become a bit more unglued because all the same recycled arguments are used.
Bryan Slone comes to the front of the opposition. He is president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry and testified on behalf of the state and Lincoln chambers of commerce, as well as the Nebraska Bankers Association and Nebraska Federation of Independent Business.
Also, Rebecca Firestone, executive director of OpenSky Policy Institute testified, and falsley claimed "Everyone pays sales tax in Nebraska," she said. "Not everyone owns property." The Omaha World Herald did the write up (https://omaha.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/gov-jim-pillens-proposal-to-raise-nebraskas-sales-tax-draws-opposition-at-hearing/article_b71844f6-c5d0-11ee-82de-9776206517b2.html).
Slone is representing so many organizations, I doubt he can speak freely but the Nebraska Chamber put out their own Blueprint Nebraska report (https://www.nechamber.com/uploads/1/3/1/6/131641147/bpne_full_report_073019.pdf) but it does not even mention consumption taxes.
The Platte Institute has had their own set of proposals but they come up short as well (https://platteinstitute.org/governor-pillens-property-tax-plans-options-and-tradeoffs/).
Yet, EPIC Option is the only organization with a workable proposal to abolish the property tax (https://epicconsumptiontax.org/bhi-study)
At the same time, people still do not understand what is wrong with property taxes. Here are the problems.
The current system is based on arbitrary evaluations of property. While many properties are comparable, many are not, resulting in unequal taxation.
The property tax system taxes people on unrealized capital gains. Yes, your property is evaluated $30,000 higher, but you will not realize such gains until your home is sold. In other words, this taxation system disregards whether or not you have the ability to pay. This creates an obstruction to buying a home in the digital age.
The property tax system is not private in regards to property location as well as the amount of tax paid and when tax was paid.
Any property open to the public, such as rental properties and stores, merely pass their tax costs to renters and consumers, an indirect tax which is not transparent
The property tax system has too many flawed exemptions including allowing for-profit businesses to be exempt from the property tax system.
The mill levy is a persistent problem for taxing authorities as they fear being short on revenue from fluctuating property evaluations and therefore fail to lower such levies, even when they want to.
For these reasons, the property tax system must go. But the detractors and naysayers keep obstructing change. They have attacked the EPIC Option consumption tax (https://epicoption.org/ ). Well, there is a downloadable flyer on this at https://epicoption.org/debunking-the-myths
I have made a bunch of memes from the PDF at link above. This will allow you to share the images on social media. “Right click”, save to desktop or where ever, upload to social media. Give it a whirl.
I like most of what you have to say here except what is said under Myth 17.
Andrew, the reality is that MOST people are getting absolutely SHITTY care from their doctors who take insurance. And the driver behind that shitty care is... THE INSURANCE COMPANIES.
NOT TAXING insurance payments INCENTIVIZES this racket further. It incentivizes them to try to murder us for profit and commit other evil just as they did during COVID, just as they're STILL trying to do with the COVID shots and now, the latest mRNA flu shots.
We need another industry disrupter.
EPIC needs to make ALL medical care non-taxable.
EPIC can't fix it that Obamacare is taxing medical appliances and other stuff related to medical care, but it will still give those of us who can't afford to get the medical care we need outside of this broken system (but really need to do so) a little extra boost in the right direction.