Tax Foundation Lies

Attacking Epic Option Begins

Well, it did not take long. No New Taxes Nebraska is attacking the EPIC Option ballot initiative (https://www.ksnblocal4.com/2024/03/14/no-new-taxes-group-opposing-epic-sales-tax-ballot-initiative-launches-campaign and https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/03/14/epic-battle-over-taxes-shaping-up-with-one-group-warning-against-an-epic-mistake-2/).

The Tax Foundation put out a supposed “study”, but it is chuck full of false presumptions and fear-mongering. On page 7 of their “study”, they state: “But the reality is that the breadth of the proposed EPIC consumption tax is not much broader than that of the current sales tax. “ This is objectively false. About 80 percent of the economy is not currently taxed. Exemptions to the sales tax is how the sales tax got to 7 percent in many areas of Nebraska. Nebraska’s economy is a service economy in a digital age and services are not taxed. This must change. The Tax Foundation “study” fails to recognize this and has ruined its credibility with me. This is proof the so-called “study” is nothing more but paid-for political propaganda. Yes, non-profits can do great research but they are too often paid-political pawns.

Between border-bleed fear-mongering and claiming 22 percent taxation just proves how ignorant the opponents of the EPIC Option are. If you buy $1,000 of stock and it rises to $100,000, should you pay tax on the $100,000 amount when you have not realized the gains by sales? All economists would say, you should not, yet this is precisely what is done with the property tax based on market evaluations.

I suspect some of these economists are mistaking tax burden with the tax rate. The problem with making such calculations is neither the Tax Foundation nor the Open Sky Institute evaluated the actual tax burden Nebraskans pay. The tax burden many Nebraskans face is high as they struggle to pay what is expected of them. If the tax system is turned into an “ability to pay” such as the EPIC Option, the economy would expand and tax revenue would actually increase. The tax burden is alleviated in an “ability to pay” tax system.

Whether it is Bryan Slone or Brett Lindstrom, or supposedly Pete Ricketts, they are lying through their teeth or they are stupid as a bag of bricks. If they understood the problem, which they don’t, they would have offered a counter-proposal, but they have not. Their lack of a counter-proposal suggests to me, they are deliberately and intentionally lying. I have great difficulty in thinking they do not understand the problems of Nebraska taxation.

I have but only one major fear about the EPIC Option. I fear it will bring in so much tax revenue, the State will have no idea what to do with it, and go on a grand spending spree instead of using the funds responsibly. When taxation is only based on your ability to pay, where does the resistance to taxation go? Omaha’s restaurant tax and Nebraska’s taxation of the internet and utilities show a pathway to moving an “ability to pay” taxation system as EPIC Option offers. The evidence is clear.