Monday, December 4, 2017

Rep. Jay Hughes: Spotting a tax shift

A “Tax Shift” is devastating to working people, but is usually pretty hard to spot.  Simply put, it is passing laws in the Mississippi Legislature to make one group of taxpayers pay less, and another group of taxpayers pay more.


The easiest way to spot a tax shift is when you hear state politicians declare: “We shrank government!” The next time you hear that, remember what really happened: the legislature cut corporate taxes by a few hundred million dollars (for mostly out-of-state corporations) and as a result, had to cut basic services for you and your family. That means that your county and other local officials were forced to raise your local taxes to pay for those services, or in some cases, those services were eliminated all together.

This budget year, Mississippi was short $325 Million in revenue to pay our bills because of prior corporate tax cuts for the select few. Impacts of the current tax shift includes these basics:

Mental Health: Basic services have been drastically cut because of funding cuts by the state legislature. This means people with mental health or addiction issues end up in your local jails, with no one there to provide the care they need. This costs your local officials more and more money every single day, for something that used to be treated and paid for by the state.

K-12 Public Education: This critical investment in the future has been underfunded by almost $2 Billion since 2008, and was cut again last year. When the legislature chooses not to pay teachers and provide other basics, your local school board has to raise your local taxes to make up the difference.

Community Colleges & Universities: These cuts and less funding mean tuition gets raised on the students, and their families, and grants can no longer be stacked.

Local Roads & Bridges Program: Funding was cut 100%. Zero Dollars. County governments were then mandated to pay through the nose to hire select, out-of-state engineering firms to “inspect” the local bridges. A local bridge may not be important to the legislature, but it is important to you when a bus, ambulance, or truck carrying materials for businesses can’t get across it to your home or job. The choice for county supervisors is to either raise your local taxes or let the county bridges continue to crumble.

All these cuts could easily be dealt with by freezing the foreign corporate tax cuts not yet in place, particularly since there is not a single shred of evidence they have attracted more jobs to Mississippi. Unfortunately, the leadership in Jackson would prefer to shift tax payments to working folks instead of treating their big campaign donors the same as your average Mississippian. Short and sweet, we are in the midst of the biggest tax shift in history. You better be careful how you vote, or cover your wallet. The same old, same old is getting really old.

Jay Hughes is State Representative for District 12/ Lafayette County.

This post is a paid advertisement.

32 comments:

Pappy O'Daniel said...

If the "local" bridge inspections had been performed properly it would have saved the state a lot of money. Unfortunately, counties were "keepin' it down home cuz" and were hiring unqualified, incompetent people to gloss over the inspections. The inspections had to be redone at taxpayer expense in order to maintain FHWA funding. The legislature had nothing to do with this, although their yo-yo coattail riding buddies back home had a lot to do with it.

Anonymous said...

There is a shift going on. Cutting tax rates, etc., forcing downsizing, then they are going to turn and cry "we need a lottery to survive....." They are creating their own sickness so we will pay for the medicine. Games of chance are no way to fund a legitimate government. Never has been, never will be.

Anonymous said...

Have to disagree with you 2:28. Makes no sense for 82 counties to inspect bridges 82 different ways. That should be centralized and done by the state.

And, it makes no sense to pay for road and bridge maintenance using county property taxes. Those gas taxes we pay should be going to these bridge repairs, not the state general fund to make up for corporate tax cuts.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Tater for cutting corporate taxes of out of state companies but in essence raising my taxes. You fooled me once but you won't fool me again!
Anybody but Tater....ABT.

Anonymous said...

Move over Bill Crawford. There's a new leftist in the house.

Anonymous said...

Hughes is gearing up to run for statewide office. He'll go down in flames.

Anonymous said...

I am a right wing Republican that voted for Trump, but Hughes is right on this. Government needs to be able to provide these basic services. Unfortunately, the Republican governor and legislature has been funding too many government giveaways to businesses. All these Haley and Phil “economic development” bond issues have cost taxpayers hundreds of millions and the business have gone under. Then there is state taxpayer financing of retail projects for Phils political cronies like the Pearl mall. We have a state swamp in Jackson.

Anonymous said...

Real estate taxes will skyrocket in the near future. Also look forward to a 10% sales tax.

Anonymous said...

You appeal to authority more often @5:46 than the friggin' Catholic Pope. If KF had $1 for every one of the thinly veiled hackneyed appeals you leave here in comments he could hire some staff and double the readership of JJ overnight.

Anonymous said...

I'm not aware that counties have a government unit of bridge inspectors.

Anonymous said...

You pay state and federal taxes on your income. Property tax, sales tax, fishing license, auto registration, fuel tax, tobacco tax, hunting license, business permits, building permits, sign permits, lodging taxes in some counties, taxes on your home phone, tax on your cell phone, gun ownership tax (carry permit), franchise business tax (that is where you pay annually for all the items in your business that you already paid tax on),workers comp and unemployment taxes, liquor taxes and probably 2 dozen more things I haven't thought of.

When you purchase a used vehicle the person you purchased it from paid sales tax. When you register it you pay sales tax again.

So my question is how much is enough for the government? We all know that almost everything state and federal government is involved in costs the tax payers much more, takes much longer, and is generally sub par.

Anonymous said...

Jay Hughes is a liberal Democrat who has never met a tax he didn’t like. Hopefully he will run for Lt. Gov so we don’t have to listen to him for another four years.

Paul Mitchell said...

I honestly hope that Mr. Education Matters didn't pay for this with state tax dollars. Since it says "paid advertisement" on the footer, I assume that he is running for Lt. Governor?

Anonymous said...

You fine people have it all wrong. Jay is not a Democrat. Jay belongs to the party of Jay.

Anonymous said...

The MDOT has a road and bridge inspection program for interstate and State highways and highway bridges. Why is it the obligation of citizens of Hancock County to pay to inspect roads and bridges in Desoto County? They are called LOCAL roads and bridges for a reason.

Anonymous said...

Jay Will soon be able to say, "I told you so"

All Bridges Matter.. said...

Again....please point me to a unit of county government that inspects bridges. In Madison County, for example, we have never known of bridge inspections on an annual business. The only time we hear about bridges is when one fails and then (for the past five or eight years) Rudy would re-do the work he had done that failed and be paid again for the same work.

Anonymous said...

It costs an average of $1.7 million dollars to build an ordinary two lane rural road these days. An average bare bones subdivision road will cost an average of $300 per linear foot. That is for the road part of construction only.
That any of you imagine that any city, county or state can build and repair all these roads and bridges is frankly naïve beyond belief.
The road at your hunting camp doesn't have withstand the same amount of traffic and traffic weight or last as long, bubba and if you have a " do it yourself" bridge over a creek at your camp and invite guests to hunt with you, I hope you understand the tolerances of your bridge as the liability if anyone gets hurts is all on you.

Anonymous said...

Six years after Katrina, the costs to rebuild just the roads and bridges was up to $1 billion dollars.
I remember there were more that a few in the U.S., like some of the commenters here, that thought Biloxi should pay for that themselves or Mississippi should pay for that themselves.
All of you would have had your taxes soar just to help Biloxi pay for removing the debris. Or you could have left it a waste land and your taxes would still have gone up because to make up the lost revenues from Biloxi. And, do remember, if you still think Biloxi should have done it all themselves, their shovels and tractors were gone and they didn't have a way to the banks for money and even then, there were no stores left.


Anonymous said...

I have been watching Jay for years. Raising his profile and, of course, a compliant liberal media in Mississippi is glad to help by seeking him out whenever they need a new quote to advance the agenda. He attacks Republicans constantly, but tries to portray himself as a fair-minded person. He's clearly setting the stage for a statewide run. The guy is a liberal Democrat, period. Those are his true colors, no matter what image he tries to portray. Like he says, "it ALL starts with education!" Voter education. Vote no on Jay.

Anonymous said...

Statewide Donkeycrat herd is so weak Mississippi's lamestreamers will glom onto any Donkey willing to go on record with a quote. The mouthpiece majority of which you will note is white while the party itself is majority black.

Anonymous said...

Local bridge inspection has been administered by the State Aid office since the 1950's and it's always contracted out and approved by State Aid. State Aid is funded by the gas tax. The money is distributed to the counties on a pro rata basis on how many miles of state aid roads you have and how much money State Aid has to give. What's Hughes talking about? Something different?

Wow said...

I agree with:

12/4 at 5:45 PM;
12/4 at 11:04 PM;
12/5 at 7:13 AM;
12/5 at 7:40 AM.

It’s incredible that posters are trying to make this into a Democrat / Republican issue versus a common sense issue.

I’m ready for intelligent conservatives who want a lean government and understand that a highly functioning one will give us the best chance at long lasting, impactful economic development.

I’m tired of “Republicans” trying to out bubba each other.

Plain ol' Catfish said...

@ December 5, 2017 at 10:41 AM

Well said and thank you.

Mississippi has clear-cut measurables to hold our elected officials accountable for - where the state ranks in crime, where the state ranks in unemployment, where the state ranks in health care, where the state ranks in education, how the state's infrastructure compares to others in the country.

Here are facts - we rank dead last in all those categories. The state has a Republican super majority from the federal level, to state-wide office, to the state legislature, to local municipalities. So you can't just blame Democrats when they don't even hold the power to sway policy in one regard or another.

We've had massive tax cuts and we're still waiting for the benefits of these tax cuts to benefit everyday working Mississippians. They've practically eliminated access to welfare, and had a surplus last year where they had to return money to Washington D.C. for the SNAP/TANF programs last year. So you can't blame welfare for the fiscal woes in this state.

Time to start holding the ones accountable that are making the policies that keep us in 50th place.

Unknown said...

Thanks for all the comments. I am encouraged that there are still different opinions on this, instead of everyone in an echo chamber. Not sure how I got pinned as a "liberal democrat" since I am a Christian, gun owner and carrier, active-duty military veteran (volunteered), business owner that employees Mississippians, have never voted to raise taxes, and paid millions in taxes while I watch leadership waste it, and, donate my Legislative salary to my two local school districts. I agree with @10:29, I am just Jay, an honest husband, dad and business owner who wants a better Mississippi. My party is Mississippi and my color is purple, and has never been anything but that. (As to the ad fee, I paid for it with my own personal money, that I earned in my own 20-year old development business, without a single tax cut, handout or sweet government contract). I do appreciate all comments, particularly those that may be different than my own, and cause me to think of new or different ideas. Merry Christmas. Jay Hughes

Anonymous said...

Kudos to you Mr. Hughes for engaging this diverse audience! There's a reason why JJ is Number #1. Your participation is valued.

Though I do think you'll vote to increase taxes when given the chance.

Anonymous said...

10:41 - Do you really think anybody cares which posters you agree with? And you bother to list those with whom you agree as if somebody might scroll back up to see what you agree with.

But, while you're insulting Republicans, what does "Impactful Economic Development" mean? As opposed to what, if you don't mind my asking?

Anonymous said...

Pappy O'Daniel - There is no such thing as 'local bridge inspections.

Anonymous said...

"We've had massive tax cuts... "

Huh" I've lived here since 2000 and my state income tax rate is and always has been 5%.

Pappy Odaniel said...

@4:29...I guess your one of these Oxford comma argument lovers as well...A county isn't local?

Anonymous said...

@ 10:29, here. I didn’t mean that as a compliment sir.

Inspect This.. said...

Pappy - I've asked several times but will again. Can somebody point me to a division or unit of county government that inspects bridges and cite a reference for their existence in state law? Thanks.



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