A well-funded group had put a proposal on the poll, Measure Q, that might have levied an annual $49 per parcel (of land) in Monterey County for ten years. The cash would go to youngster care. In early August, once I learn the proposal, I simply knew that the majority the key gamers within the county would favor it or, in the event that they didn’t, would keep silent. Who would oppose a subsidy “for the youngsters”? However I additionally believed that it was a nasty subsidy. Ought to taxpayers pay for different folks’s youngster care? And may they be taxed to pay for an ill-defined and comparatively open-ended subsidy for which there was near zero accountability? I wished to jot down a poll argument towards Measure Q. I didn’t assume opponents of the measure would win, besides it was vital to supply voters an argument towards the tax improve slightly than a clean web page within the voter information. I gained’t preserve you in suspense. We did win. Furthermore, our facet was outspent by roughly 600 to 1.
This is among the opening paragraphs of David R. Henderson, “Tax vs. Info: An Election Story,” Defining Concepts, December 1, 2022.
One other excerpt:
On the identical time, although, debate was occurring on social media. Chris Kramer, a buddy and ally who follows the Nextdoor social community extra carefully than I do, informed me that folks have been quoting my argument that the tax was regressive. Rosemarie Barnard had informed me that most individuals wouldn’t perceive what a regressive tax is. I had extra confidence than she had, but it surely later occurred to me that their understanding of financial concept might need mattered lower than I had thought. The phrase “regressive” sounds, properly, regressive. Many individuals name themselves progressives. What group of individuals go round calling themselves “regressives”?
I really like the editor’s line after the title: “A proposed tax improve meets a small however decided band of opponents.”
Learn the entire thing.There’s some good economics in there about whether or not the burden of a land tax is on renters or landowners.
The image above is of a juggernaut, which is what the facet in favor of the tax, the facet that spent $600,000 to our $1,000, felt like.
