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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Vosilla who wrote (71950)	2/12/2007 9:15:55 AM
From: ChanceIs	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

>>>Yes all those federal tax cuts in recent years are now being made up in a big way by major increases in local RE taxes<<< Yes, but look at it this way. Federal income taxes are not deductible against federal income taxes, whilst local real estate taxes are. There is always a bright side. ;-) Maybe the Greenspan-Clinton-Bush hyperinflation will backfire by transferring power (tax dollars) from the Feds to the States. Not that the States don't do an equally good job wasting it.

To: John Vosilla who wrote (71950)	2/12/2007 9:30:31 AM
From: Les H	Respond to of 306849

They're being made up in a big way by the AMT. The median household income passed the AMT threshold several years ago. I suspect that the median AGI (adjusted gross income) is currently in the process of doing so. There's a nice chart in this link on the explosion of taxpayers filing under the AMT schedule. taxpolicycenter.org

To: John Vosilla who wrote (71950)	2/12/2007 10:50:33 AM
From: Bonefish	Respond to of 306849

I have to recommend that post.

To: John Vosilla who wrote (71950)	2/12/2007 11:09:47 AM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 306849

Even worse the extra money on the local level is being squandered by municipalities on unnecessary public works projects, fraud and corruption. Did Mish figure all this into his deflation model? yeah, in utah the money keeps rolling in and it looks like they can't spend the money as fast enough....considering their huge tax surplus i'm sure the race in local governments is to spend the double digit increases in tax revenues before the voters take notice that state coffers are bulging while voter savings are dwindling deseretnews.com 60% in poll want big Utah tax cut Copyright 2007 Deseret Morning News By Bob Bernick Jr. Deseret Morning News Sixty percent of Utahns want a significant state tax cut this year, a new poll shows. Deseret Morning News graphic And GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Republican legislators are steadily moving toward giving them what they want. A new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll conducted this past week by Dan Jones & Associates finds that 30 percent of residents don't want any tax cut this year; they'd rather have $1.6 billion in surplus tax revenue go to needy state programs. But 29 percent favor a $110 million tax cut pushed by Huntsman; 9 percent like a $150 million tax cut originally suggested by Senate Republicans; while 22 percent like the GOP House's $300 million tax cut. Add all those tax-cut advocates together and you get 60 percent wanting to see their taxes reduced in some manner this year. Jones found that 9 percent didn't know or have no opinion about tax cuts. Jones polled 418 adult Utahns between Tuesday and Thursday of last week, with the poll's margin of error plus or minus 5.0 percent. After the poll was conducted, Republican leaders announced a "soft" compromise on tax cuts. GOP senators would go up, House Republicans would go down, resulting in a tax cut of $210 million. Tentatively, GOP senators would get to say how $105 million would be given back to Utahns, while House Republicans would decide how the other $105 million would be carved out of tax revenues. Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said that a flat-rate income tax reform bill (SB223) sponsored by Sen. Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, is a "preferred alternative" among the 21 Republican senators. SB223 would further reduce the flat rate tax from 5.35 percent to 5 percent. The measure would also give hefty, non-refundable tax credits to families and individuals. It would cost $102 million this year in tax cuts. So, if GOP senators went with that bill, their $105 million in tax cuts is about used up. House Republicans aren't necessarily happy with SB223, however, some saying it doesn't do enough to help middle-income large families. Testimony before a special tax review group also showed Friday that SB223 would make Utah's personal income tax system more volatile to large swings — a lot more money coming in with good times, but more cash lost when the economy takes a downturn. The House majority likes a bill backed by House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, that would remove the food sales tax from so-called "boutique" taxes, like the ZAP and transit taxes. That approach would cost those special districts about $20 million. Meanwhile, fiscally conservative House members say a $210 million tax cut is not enough. They predict that state government will grow too much unless $300 million to $400 million in taxes are cut this year. Jones finds that legislative Republicans are politically smart to give big tax cuts. Sixty-eight percent of Utahns who say they are Republicans — two out of every three Republicans — want significant tax cuts, the poll finds. Sixty-nine percent of those who say they "strongly" vote Republican each year want the tax cuts, with a quarter favoring the House's $300 million in cuts. Thus, the party base seems to be clearly on the side of big tax cuts. Jones found that Utah Democrats are cooler to tax cuts. But even 50 percent of Democrats want tax cuts, with 18 percent saying that they would rather not get any tax cuts and have the money spent on needy state programs. Last year, legislators gave $180 million dollars in tax cuts when they had around $1 billion extra. GOP legislative leaders say it's fair to give $210 million in tax cuts this year, given the state had about $1.6 billion in tax surpluses.