From: yount@crchh473.BNR.CA (Jeff Yount)
Subject: Re: Raising taxes on the poor.
Reply-To: yount@crchh473.BNR.CA (Jeff Yount)
Organization: BNR
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1992 18:44:44 GMT

In article <1992Oct8.153128.3249@cimage.com>, markb@cimage.com (Mark
Bernstein) writes:
|>Marc J Byrd (byrd@lucerne.rice.edu) wrote:
|>: I don't recall exactly how many times (2?) and by what amounts,
|>: but wasn't Clinton responsible for raising the taxes on GROCERIES
|>: in Arkansas?
|>: 
|>: Now, who's responsible for this?  Here's the opportunity for you
|>: Clinton supporters to DEMONSTRATE (prove with transcripts, etc)
|>: that Clinton was FORCED by his state legislature to go along
|>: with these taxes.
|>: 
|>: I really want to know whose idea this was, and what Clinton's response
|>: was!
|>: 
|>	Well, this doesn't answer you exactly, but here's my perspective:
|>
|>	1) Arkansas is a poor state.  Despite the taxes Clinton has raised,
|>it still has one of the lowest tax burdens in the country.  Clinton did
|>push some tax hikes through as Governor, because the state needed the extra
|>revenue.  I have no problem with that.  (Also, the Arkansas state 
|>constitution requires a balanced budget, and Clinton adhered to that
|>requirement (not that he had a choice) for all 11 budgets he submitted.)
|>
|>	2) As to *which* taxes he raised, he was again constrained by the
|>state constitution.  Raising sales taxes only required a simple majority
|>of the state legislature.  Several other taxes, including income taxes,
|>cannot be raised in Arkansas unless the raise is approved by a two-thirds
|>majority of both houses of the legislature.  Clinton couldn't get the
|>votes he needed to raise those, so he pushed through the raises he could
|>get.
|>
|>	3) I have heard Clinton, on at least one occasion, defend a
|>particular tax increase by pointing out that polls at the time showed the
|>increase to be favored by a large majority of the Arkansas population.  No
|>one has ever accused him of "sneaking" a tax increase through.  My 
|>impression is that he's been reasonably careful about making sure that the
|>people he served understood what he was proposing, and why.  Never assume
|>that a tax increase is the work of some evil government out to screw the
|>people.  Study the context.
|>
|>	4)  Groceries?  I don't know, it's possible.  Again, I'd like to
|>know the context.  Does anyone have the facts?  (I seem to vaguely recall
|>reading that he raised sales taxes in general, then later exempted 
|>groceries after people protested, but I may be wrong.)
|>
|>Mark Bernstein
|>markb@cimage.com
|>
                                               
I believe the story about raising taxes on groceries comes
from the increase in sales taxes during Clinton's 12 years
as Governor. The sales tax was raised from 3% to 4.25% ( or
4.5%, I've heard both). In Arkansas, sales tax applies to
groceries, some states exempt groceries from sales taxes. These
increases were not a result of big spending as the Republicans
have tried to claim. During the Reagan and Bush administrations,
the money that used to go to the states from the federal budget
was cut drastically. This action forced most states to increase
taxes or make up the revenue from other sources. Gov. Clinton
has actually been praised for shrinking government contrary to
what the Republicans have been trying to make everybody believe.
If you want an account of Gov. Clinton's track record, and what
his leadership has done for Arkansas, you may want to read a
book called "Clinton - Young Man In A Hurry" by Jim Moore. It
describes how Clinton dealt with a very hostile state legislature,
what he did for the education system, how people who are now
telling us how terrible it would be for him to get elected (like
John Sununu) used to praise him and gives a good idea of how he
makes his decisions. Jim Moore is a Republican, by the way. Not 
that this means anything, there ARE some Republicans that can
make judgements based on things other than party affiliation.
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