“If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck,†said Alan Cobb, Kansas director of Americans for Prosperity, declaring that a small monthly charge on all electric meters would be a tax increase. Backers of the Holcomb coal plant who voted for the proposal characterized the charge as a “fee,†but Cobb said it “would be appropriately framed as a tax.â€
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16 Comments
We need the new coal plants for future energy. Politicians and others will find a way to tax you right and left regardless of the reason. What else is new. You might have less taxes if you do have the new coal plants. Greenhouse gases taxes and regulations for that purpose would be a rip off.
I wonder how yes voters signed the anti tax pledge from the Kansas taxpayer network?
Exactly the point! Thanks Tom.
Americans for Prosperity, declaring that a small monthly charge on all electric meters would be a tax increase. Backers of the Holcomb coal plant who voted for the proposal characterized the charge as a “fee,” but Cobb said it “would be appropriately framed as a tax.”
See, this is part of the silliness of right-wing political rhetoric. What the hell difference would it make if it was a “tax” or a “fee?” It’s still money out of your pocket.
(And, just for the record, I’m against the Holcomb plants.)
Nobody “likes” taxes. Being against taxes is like being against dropping toddlers into rattlesnake pits. I don’t like gravity; I’d be height-to-weight proportionate with less of it. Being “anti-tax” is like being “pro fluffy kittens.” It is — literally — a no brainer.
I remember doing an ad campaign for a furniture store years ago that turned out to be one of the most successful promotions they ever had. The offer: “We’ll pay the sales tax!”
What it amounted to was a 4 or 5% discount. Other promotions with price reductions of 10 or 15 or 20% didn’t pull in customers like that line on the invoice that said they weren’t paying sales tax!
Call it a “tax” and Americans will oppose it. Call it a “fee” and somehow you get a pass?
And this is a matter that transcends so many issues. If we had universal health care coverage adminsitered by the government, would it mean an increase in “taxes?” Yeah, probably. But you wouldn’t be paying insurance premiums or face a labyrinth of co-pays, deductibles, pre-existing conditions, maximum pay-outs…
And which route is more likely to take coins from your pocket?
The pro-polluters have a point. We can completely eliminate all taxes today, we’ll just call them fees. Hey, if Scalia can redefine torture as not being punishment, then we can simply call taxes fees, or better yet, income redistribution plans.
And then there’s the tax monies that will be burned up if the legislature goes through with its astonishing plan to SUE the Governor for vetoing the Holcomb legislation, to say nothing of the monies burned up sorting through the bills into which they’ve bundled the Holcomb legislation as a poison pill.
Why do Kansas House Republicans hate Kansas taxpayers?
“And then there’s the tax monies that will be burned up if the legislature goes through with its astonishing plan to SUE the Governor for vetoing the Holcomb legislation, to say nothing of the monies burned up sorting through the bills into which they’ve bundled the Holcomb legislation as a poison pill.”
They won’t have much luck with this. The Supreme Court said the EPA has the authority to regulate CO2 emissions, so I don’t see why the state environmental agency wouldn’t have the same authority.
The Republicans have never had any problems wasting taxpayer taxes, or as they call them now, fees.
Just wait for all those “carbon fees” to hit your wallet. Everything from your car to petroleum based plastics on your computer.
Do you think Alan Cobb and AFP were supporters of President Bush, the most fiscally irresponsible president in our history? Do you think they now will support McCain? They aren’t interested in fiscal responsibility, or they would make sure the ledger was balanced before they cut more taxes. This is just dishonest, Washington style politics that tries to create a false image in the minds of the voters about a particular candidate, or political party. How many hundreds of billions in more tax cuts is McCain proposing? And is he proposing to increase revenues, or just keep sending IOUs to China? Never mind, I know the answer.
And thanks to our legislature, the next time you register your car, it will cost you another 5 bucks.
But remember, those who voted for it will tell you it is a fee, not a tax…..
KSFARMGRRL!!! –
What the hell?!
I happened to be listening to Channel 8’s “Ask Your Legislator” with Hensley and some JoCo Republic… And the question came in about water at Holcomb.
They both pooh-poohed the issue! Said stuff like, “Sunflower had attained water right… (blah blah blah)…”
Silly me. I thought the water issue might be (if not a top of the mind issue) at least something some people might know about.
They were clueless!
How did that happen?
Hey Kelly & Maggotpunk:
You guys need to rise about petty partisan politics. I need to educate you both about the goals of Americans for Prosperity. Attached is a link to the AFP – Kansas website:
http://www.americansforprosperity.org/index.php?state=ks
AFP is not just about lower taxes. It is very concerned about balanced budgets & decreasing the increases in state & local government spending. AFP has championed transparency & accountability in budgets which both liberals & conservatives should appreciate and bureaucrats will hate. If Kelly is so interested in a balanced budget, I hope that he will join AFP in supporting the TABOR bill to limit the growth of state spending to inflation.
M’Punk demonstrates his youthful ignorance when he compares federal regulatory agencies to a state agency. Punk is unaware of the fascism that exists when law enforcement & regulatory agencies in Kansas are run by corrupt nepotistic officials (both Democrat & GOP) that selectively enforce laws & regulations or retaliate against citizens that complain about the corruption in the law enforcement or regulatory agency. Even more egregious is the fascism demonstrated by the Kansas Supreme Court in failing to discipline attorneys a& judges that commit criminal acts. I hope that liberals will join AFP to support legislation so that the Democrat or GOP governor can choose their own nominees to the Kansas Supreme Court with approval by the majority of the Senate. Even though I am a conservative pro-life Republican, I would rather have an honest ethical liberal justice chosen by a Democratic governor than allow the Kansas Bar Association to chose justices than condone & cover up criminal activity by both Democrat & GOP judges and district attorneys.
I do not think M’Punk realizes the extent that the bi-partisan fascist judges & attorneys can pressure the incompetent Eagle publisher & editor (Pam Siddall & Sherry Chisenhall) to refuse to investigate & report corruption stories. M’Punk Send me an e-mail if you wants some smoking gun evidence of corruption by pro-life Republican Catholic, Mormon & Evangelical Christian judges in Wichita. Of course I will feel obligated to send you documentation of criminal activity by Democrat Nola Foulston’s office which has been condoned by liberal Democrat Governor Sebelius & AG Steve Six. Nepotism, elitism, graft & fascism reign supreme in Wichita.
Whether you agree with Bush’s decision to invade Iraq war, the war, hurricane Katrina & 911 are resons for the deficit spending. However the GOP controlled Senate & House deserves the blame for the outrageous growth in discretionery domestic spending from 2001 – 2006. Blame Tiahrt not Bush.
Bill McKean kiakahahaha@yahoo.com 316 293-6079
George have you read where this energy is going? It isn’t for the future energy needs of Kansas and never will be. It is for CO and TX. Where neither will allow them to build. I’m all for the needs of Kansas but we need to keep the energy in state or have provisions where when needed in the future we will have access to that energy. In this case that isn’t what the truth is. The most we can ever receive for Kansas use is 20% or less. I was told if Kansas needs more in the future the users here will have to pay more to build more as the energy from these plants is committed. It should be for a five or ten year period at the most. A case of a few big companies and individuals getting rich off the taxpayers. JMO
TABOR? You can’t be serious. When did that idea start breathing again? TABOR is synonymous with “a pig in a poke.”
Monkey, Sunflower thinks because it bought up some existing water rights, the project is “water neutral”
Which says more about our phucked up water rights allocations than it does about holcomb.
My question is, where in the “first in time, first in right” charade do these existing “rights” fall?
When they day comes, and it will, that we start reducing or eliminating existing rights, will this plant supercede municipal use? Other industrial use like packing plants? Agricultural use like irrigation and feedlots?
If Sunflower uses this much muscle and political capital to get the damn things built, what do ya think they will do to KEEP their water rights and the damn plants running?
Oh yeah. This is gonna get interesting down the road. The good people of west and southwest kansas my rue the day they gave all to get these plants built.
Because part of the “all” they gave for a handful of permanent jobs will be their water of life.
You think Sunflower wont muscle over the local folks when the great reckoning arrives for over allocated water rights in the Arkansas River Basin?
And btw, isnt that YOUR water also they will be fighting to retain?
Kansas…as dumb as you think!
Water remains the third rail of kansas politics.
The larger conversation about how to REDUCE existing water rights needs to be had sooner, rather than later. Wont the Garden City and Holcomb folks be happy when they wake up and cant water their gardens, cant wash their cars, and have to pay through the nose for drinking water.
And the Holcomb power plant will be chugging away, fouling their air and sucking up their water to send electricity to Colorado and Texas.
I wonder what “economic development” relief (welfare) they will ask the legislature for at that point?
Because without water, NO industry or people will want to live there.
I wonder if Finney County will, in the future, think it was a good trade to send their water to Colorado for a handful of permanent jobs?
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[...] WE Blog | The Wichita Eagle Editorial Department Blog wrote an interesting post today on Did coal backers vote for a tax increase?Here’s a quick excerptDid coal backers vote for a tax increase? PostedJust now “If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck,” said Alan Cobb, Kansas director of Americans for Prosperity, declaring that a small monthly charge on all electric meters would be a tax increase. Backers of the Holcomb coal plant who voted for the proposal characterized the charge as a “fee,” but Cobb said it “would be appropriately framed as a tax.” By Phillip Brownlee | Filed under Kansas government | [...]