Sunday, February 15, 2009
New York State Punishing The Producers
Question: Does Graduated Income Taxes at the State Level Violate the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution?
Instead of living within it’s means the State of New York is (yes, you guessed correctly) increasing taxes on the “evil” rich. I don’t know of anyone that was employed by a poor person. Using wealth envy to attack the producers is a really bad idea. To think that this will prevent statewide economic catastrophe is lunacy.
You have to love “graduated” income tax brackets. Karl Marx sure did.
New York wants an increase of from 1.4 to 2.6 percent on anyone making over $250,000.
$250,000 - $499,000 - 8.25 percent
$500,000 - $999,999 - 8.97 percent
$1,000,000 and up - 10.3 percent
Is there anyone in New York state or any other state that has a graduated income tax willing to challenge this on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution?
I think there is a valid argument to be made here!
The “Equal Protection Clause is a portion of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibits discrimination by state government institutions. The clause grants all people “equal protection of the laws,” which means that the states must apply the law equally and cannot give preference to one person or class of persons over another.
From my understanding this does not apply to the Federal Government but does apply directly to the States.
Graduated income taxes DOES GIVE preference to one person or class of persons over another. The citizens of the United States may not be able to change the way Washington DC does business but, we can surely start putting pressure on the states to end the discriminatory practice of graduated income taxes.
Who has the stones to challenge their state? It would be a worthy challenge.
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