Conservatively Speaking
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend, the town of Vernon and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
Taxing the Internet: An update
In June, I blogged about measures being sought in Congress to tax the very technology you are using right now…the Internet.I wrote, “Don’t look now but tax-crazy America could be taxing the Internet and your computer as early as this fall. That would mean taxes on e-mail, taxes on Internet shopping, and taxes on broadband connections.State and local governments are pushing Congress for two dramatic changes: the power to charge sales taxes on Internet shopping, and the ability to impose new monthly taxes on DSL and other Net connections. The result could be an increase in tax collections in the billions of dollars.”
Here’s my summer blog on the issue.
There is good news.
Both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives approved extending a moratorium on Internet taxes for another seven years, ensuring that Americans will be able to continue using the Internet tax-free. A powerful tool, the Internet has provided a tremendous shot in the arm to the nation’s economy, and has become a necessary component of everyday life for millions of Americans. President Bush signed into law the legislation extending the moratorium for seven years.
Keep in mind the National Governor’s Association (NGA) favors taxes on the Internet, and lobbied Congress to extend the moratorium for another four years, not seven. Governor Doyle is a member of the NGA Executive Committee and the NGA Economic Development and Commerce Committee.
The seven –year reprieve is very good news for small business, consumers, and taxpayers. Even better news would be to make the moratorium on Internet taxes permanent.
It is important to note that even though the moratorium on Internet taxes was extended, Internet access services remain taxable in Wisconsin. Here are details from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue
Christmas in the state Capitol
The state Department of Administration (DOA) has announced Christmas events and displays in the State Capitol. (The Department uses the word, “Holiday.” I say, “Christmas”).Here’s the DOA news release.
Sign up for Wisconsin's No Call List
If you haven’t registered your home phone on Wisconsin’s No Call List, you can get on the list January 1, 2008. But you have until December 1, 2007 to register.
Registering is easy. Just fill out this online form.
Signing up identifies you as someone who does not wish to receive telemarketing calls. It's free and available for residential telephone customers in Wisconsin. Your number will remain on the List for two years. Adding your residential phone number to the List will help reduce telemarketing calls to your home.
Think universal health care is dead?
Guess again.
Momentum is slowly building in the high-profile state of California to enact government health care.
Stateline.org reports, “California has 6.6 million uninsured – more than any state – and a third of those reside in Los Angeles County, according to the California HealthCare Foundation, a nonprofit group that studies the state’s health-care delivery and financing. A trendsetting state on issues from cleaning up smog to banning toxic plastics in toys, California now could become a prime test bed for universal health care.”
Here is the stateline.org report.
Think it couldn’t happen here?
Senate Democrats vow to return with another catastrophically expensive government health care plan.
Government health care was rejected during the budget process and it must be defeated when the plan resurfaces.
America's wealthy paying more than their fair share
The top one percent of federal income taxpayers in America pays more than the bottom 90 percent.That is the finding from the very latest data from the Internal Revenue service as reported by the non-partisan Tax Foundation in Washington D.C.
The Tax Foundation reports:
Do America’s wealthy pay their fair share of taxes? Most politicians say they don’t.
But a new Tax Foundation study of IRS tax returns shows the highest-earning Americans pay an overwhelmingly large share of the nation’s income tax burden.
According to the study, America’s richest 25 percent of taxpayers paid about 86 percent of all federal income taxes in 2005, despite earning only 67 percent of the nation’s income. The highest-earning 1 percent alone—those earning more than $364,657—paid a staggering 39.4 percent of all federal income taxes, despite earning just 21 percent of the nation’s income.
That means the top 1 percent of tax returns paid about the same amount of federal income tax as the bottom 95 percent of tax returns combined.
“These new data overturn the widespread misconception that high-earners in America don’t pay federal income taxes,” said Tax Foundation President Scott A. Hodge. “The federal tax code today is heavily skewed toward imposing very high tax burdens on high earners.”
Here is the full report from the Tax Foundation.
