St. Paul recorder., 1963-01-17
The Sales Tax Three
Become Specific

The promise (by the Minnesota Taxpayers As
ISOLATION the Chamber of Commerce and the Min
nesota Farm Bureau) that sales tax bill will be
introduced in this session of the legislature is at
least step forward It will be helpful to have
thing specific to talk about in the sales tax debate
instead of just the assertions and claims-often wild
and fantastc-of the sales tax propagandists.
To be sure the advocates have, in announcing
their plan, again ndulged in fantasy in their claims
for what the sales tax will do to and for us. But
their formula is reduced to specific piece Of
legislation so that we can know what they really
talking about, it will be possible to reduce these
fantasies to their ultimate absurdity.
Up to this time and including the current
proposal the sales tax advocates have persisted in
selling the plan on its proposed exceptions and ex-
emphons. The exemptions supposed to make the
plan palatable by removing the obnoxious and vici-
GUS features of all general sales taxes but this is
nonsense The tax to do the job wanted by its ad-
vocates, has to raise revenue You can't pass
"non-regressive" sales tax and raise the money
needed relieve big business of millions of dollars
of tax obligations.
And this Is what the Sales Tax Three are after
They propose eliminating the corporate surtax and
the personal property tax on business. And they
want US to believe that this is going to cost the
rest Of hardly anything.
There Is a curious aspect Of the Farm Bureaus
part IN all OF this The Bureau, supposedly represent
ing the farmers of the state is supporting a tax
that will shift enormous burden to the shoulders
of the farmer, who will be unable to escape (as
business does) the sales tax on much Of the pro-
duction supplies which he must purchase.
Another curious aspect of the current proposal
its predecessors Is the way in which the spon
sors accompany their proposal with a slanderous
destructive and largely untruthfu attack upon our
great state.
For example, there is the tattered old argument
that Minnesota has poor climate" for business
The Sales Tax Three and their allies have been
advertising this false propaganda to the entire
country for many years. Evidently discriminating
businessmen and industralists know how to evaluate
the sources Of this type Of propaganda, because
Minnesotas industry continues to grow faster than
that Of other states in the regon-and In the fields
such electronics, that the most desirable
Moreover there Is direct relationship between
this growth and Minnesota's tax structure Our
income tax, described by the three second high
est in the nation at the $10,O0O-a-year level and
third highest at the $5,0O0-a-year level, supports
our remarkable system of public education which
Is a powerful magnet in attracting elite industries
But the shabbiest argument Is the claim that
presumably because don't have sales taxi
10000 people a year leave Minnesota for jobs in
other states. AS If the migration of people in this
migratory one-way process for Min
nesota!
If the Sales Tax Three want to be taken seri-
ousy, they would do we'll to get in touch with few
Of today's realities.