As governor, Kamala Harris running mate Tim Walz blew through an $18 billion budget surplus and imposed tax increases on the middle class.
It’s no wonder the IRS agent union has endorsed Harris and Walz: their tax hikes will kill your job while creating jobs for IRS agents.
Walz imposed the following tax increases:
Car tax hike — from 6.5% to 6.875%
Gas tax hike — Walz raised it by pegging it to inflation so it rises automatically every year. So Walz put the squeeze on Minnesotans already struggling from Biden-Harris inflation.
Payroll tax hike — this tax hike hits all employees and employers
Sales tax hike — this tax hike hits the seven-county Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area
Package tax — 50 cents per package delivery to your home
Capital gains tax hike — on capital gains, dividends, interest and rental income
Corporate tax hike — by widening the net of taxable business income
Income tax hike — by widening the net of taxable personal income
Boat registration tax hike — doubling of the registration tax on everyday family fishing and recreational boats under 19 feet. Given the 10,000-plus lakes, boat ownership is common and about half of Minnesota boat owners earn less than $100k per year.
Canoe, kayak, and paddleboard registration tax hike — 119% tax hike. MN is one of the small handful of states with such a tax.
$10 billion in tax hikes: “By enacting $10 billion of tax hikes over the next four years, the state government has made Minnesota even less attractive to potential residents than it was,” writes John Phelan, economist at the Center for the American Experiment, a prominent Minnesota free-market think tank.
Like many things in his career, Walz lies about the above tax increases and tries to claim they are the “largest tax cut in state history.” In reality, they are a large, multi-billion dollar net tax increase.
Walz was a tax hike outlier nationwide as most other states cut taxes during the last few years, as noted by the Tax Foundation: “Walz raised taxes as most governors cut them.”
Walz made Minnesota the only state where the capital gains tax is even higher than the income tax. Minnesota has a brutal 10.85% top capital gains tax.
43.85% Harris-Walz combined federal-state capital gains tax: Combined with the Kamala Harris proposed federal capital gains tax rate hike to 33%, adding the Walz state burden of 10.85% saddles residents with a 43.85% combined rate. This hits small business owners hard when they try to sell the business upon retirement.
Among the worst state tax climates for business: Minnesota under Walz’s “leadership” is near the bottom of the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index. The state ranks 44th, grouped together with progressive basket cases like California and New York.
Taxpayers are fleeing the state: “IRS interstate migration data show that the state is losing about ten households earning more than $200,000 for every six that it gains, which is the fifth worst ratio among the states,” notes the Cato Institute.
As a member of congress in 2009, Walz voted to impose an enormous $1 trillion energy tax increase known as Cap and Trade on the American people. Luckily the 1,427-page bill died in the Senate as it was even too radical for the hard left then-Senate Leader Harry Reid. Walz said, “I’m very proud to have voted for cap and trade in the United States congress.”
Had the bill become law it could have stifled the American fracking revolution and hurt natural gas production in Pennsylvania. If Walz had his way, the U.S. might now be stuck in the same position as Europe: Hemmed-in by climate bureaucracy and unable to secure energy independence, let alone energy dominance.
It is no wonder Kamala Harris selected Walz: they are both eager to raise your taxes which will kill jobs and make the United States less competitive vs. China and the rest of the world.
Harris is calling for about $5 trillion in tax increases over the next decade.
John Kartch is a writer for Americans for Tax Reform (ATR.org).
Reprinted with Permission from ATR.org – By John Kartch
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
On the list of things with tax increases I noticed the Boat registration tax hike and the Canoe, kayak and paddle board tax hike. And it has me wondering if those tax hikes have something to do with with those who are proposing them not having both oars in the water. That is all I am going to say about the matter — many years ago I set a policy for myself to not say anything about someone that I would not say to them in person. So if Tim Walz Kamala Harris and. President Biden were right in front of me right now I would say to them that I believe their political views are wrong, and I would tell them what specifically I believe they are wrong about . Saying that their political views did not make sense would be about as far as I would go in criticism . One of the principles of being a Reagan Conservative is belief in Lower Taxes. I thank God everyday for being a Reagan Conservative and it is like having a good wind in the sails — it helps to get to the destination in the right way across the political seas.
Remember all the things that weren’t taxed before obama taxed every single thing? Then Dictator Beijing biden and Communist harris add more taxes on things that weren’t taxed on top of everything that is already taxed. You have Communist harris who wants to tax your income at 80 percent and tax unearned income on top of it. Now. Walz wants even more taxes on top of it so they can give your hard earned money to their Illegal Alien Terrorist Invasion Criminals and foreigners but not Americans. This speaks volumes on why I am voting for President Trump who puts Americans first with lower taxes and more money in your pocket.
This list looks a lot like what a lot of other Democrat Governors have enacted over the last few years. It certainly looks a lot like what my Democrat Governor has enacted over the last few years as he tries to build momentum for a future presidential run, as well as what the various Democrat Governors of New York state have done as well for the same reason.
Tax and spend. Tax and spend. It’s how they work. Most Democrat politicians are always looking to create a new program or project that entails spending hundreds of millions or several billions of additional taxpayer dollars as a means to repay their big money donors for financing their campaigns and also greasing the skids for even bigger political aspirations.
Harris and Walz want to complete the transformation of the United States to another bankrupt, socialist or Marxist Utopia on their watch. So, the quickest way to speed up the decline of the U.S. economy and lower everyone’s standard of living is to enact a slew of insane tax hikes, that are sure to curtail job growth and business formation. They will also make the United States far less competitive in terms of attracting new money and talent from overseas. No one is going to invest in an American business here, if the net return on capital is substantially lower than what they can attain in their own country or another country.
Looks like he might do something to cut the $2 trillion deficit.