Anyone have $1 Trillion to spare?
Just call 1-800-GOP-SUCKS .. they'll use the funds wisely ..
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Tax cut = More jobs and more people paying taxes.
Ah, the old supply side hoax.....
Except... no.
Every time this country has cut taxes on a large scale, government revenues have increased. How is that even possible?
And it happens in other contexts, as well. One of the more striking examples (mainly because it's striking on its own, but I was living there at the time and witnessed it first hand) was when the City of Nashville raised the hotel tax (Hotel Occupancy Privilege Tax) and immediately saw the convention business disappear and overall tax revenue tank in spectacular proportions.
At the time in the late 1980s into the 1990s the state sales tax in TN was 9 percent (it's currently 9.25%). Added to that was a hotel tax of 7 percent, bringing the total tax for each night stayed in a hotel at 16 percent. That's a little steep, but Opryland, Country music and geographical location still made the city a tourist draw and great place to hold conventions. The state's constitution explicitly prohibits the taxation of income, and the state and various cities are constantly trying to figure out ways to raise taxes to increase revenue. They city government knew they couldn't squeeze the local residents any more (they tried, many times) so members of the Metropolitan Council (the 40-member legislative authority of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, overwhelmingly Democrats since Reconstruction, with an average of less than 10% (4) being Republicans), went, "Hey, let's soak the tourists! They're from out of town and we won't have to answer to them!"
So, they bumped up the hotel tax from 7 percent to 12 percent for a total tax for a stay in a hotel to 21 percent. WIthin 2 years conventions and corporate retreats in the city became a fond memory, and tourism all but dried up. What Country music related tourism remained mainly benefitted hotels in municipalities just outside the county line (mostly Lebanon and Murfreesboro). There were other factors at play, but the increased hotel tax resulting in the reduced tourism and convention business led directly to the demise of the Opryland USA as a theme park, turned it into an outlet mall, and threatened the existence of the Opryland Hotel itself.
After years of crushing pressure, the Metropolitan Council relented and reduced the hotel tax back down to 7 percent. Tourism and convention business rebounded somewhat, as did tax revenue at large. The Council was further pressured by business owners to reduce the tax further, and they finally in 2010 did so to its current level of 5 percent. The Opryland Hotel expanded greatly into a hotel and convention center, and the convention and tourism business in the city has been booming ever since. And ever since FY 2010, the annual revenue from the hotel tax has hit new records.
"
FY 2013-14 collections reached an all-time high of $44,939,895, representing an increase of 21.66 percent compared to FY 2012-13. June 2014 revenues totaled $4,946,257, marking the highest collections in one month, exceeding the previous all-time highs by 4 percent (March 2014) and 21 percent (October 2013). Since December 2010, Nashville’s hotel occupancy tax collections have experienced 43 consecutive months of growth."
