My Little Town & Sales Taxes

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Is Joplin, MO

Today's local newspaper (the Joplin Globe) has the following front page headline above the fold..

Joplin's Sales Tax Revenue Declines

Oddly, as I have noticed is often the case, I don't SEE this headline on the on-line edition of the paper.. It 'seems' as if much of the time stories which point out economic difficulties in the hard copy of the paper DO NOT make the on-line version.. Strange, IMO..

At any rate this story points out the following facts..

Joplin's sales tax receipts were down 2% for the city's fiscal year..

That's down 2% from 2009 proceeds..

And the total is down about 5% from 2008 proceeds..

Our city's finance director said.. "It's [sales tax] not supposed to peak; it's supposed to keep going higher."

She continues..

"It's based on the theory that taxes will go up as prices go up. If people are buying the same amount, sales tax should go up if prices are going up. 2008 was definitely our largest year. If you look historically, we're almost back to the 2005 levels."

Here's what Newton County Commissioner Jerry Carter had to say about sales tax revenue..

"There is no rhyme or reason for the way this sales tax comes in. It is so inconsistent. My guess is that people pay late and that things get bogged down. We've tried to track it (from month to month), and it's almost impossible. You have to look at it on a three-month basis or a year." To see the trends.

What jumps out at me in this story is the statement "If people are buying the same amount, sales tax should go up if prices are going up."

To me this is ponzi thinking.. again.. To think that the taxes needed to support towns, cities, states across the country are based on ever increasing inflation is scary..

This is WHY the government and the Federal Reserve Bank are so afraid of the boogy man.. deflation.. IF it shows up, and, IMO, economic conditions say it NEEDS to, then EVERYONE is doomed as prices fall and an economy, based entirely on the accumulation of debt and ever increasing inflation, collapses..

Greg

The actual article itself is no where to be found on-line.. Odd, to me, how this happens.. try searching for a national story out of your local paper on-line.. It 'appears', to me anyway, that the same story is rehashed, reworded, changed around, for many different regions of the country.. Surely not..