The General Assembly has lowered state taxes in recent years and now struggles to find ways to pay for such basics as maintaining our university buildings. Most of the community colleges have bills in the legislature requesting funds. State departments have been asked to cut back.
Money is needed for legitimate programs, but taxes have been reduced.
Of course, part of the problem is the court demand to repay taxes illegally collected. But paying back the money to citizens or never having collected it-it's all the same. That money wasn't going to be there in the first place to run government. So repaying the taxes is no excuse. One large block of revenue this year will go to raising teacher salaries to the national level.