In recent years, Republican governors have been doing a fantastic job of carrying the torch for fiscal conservatism and burnishing the GOP’s brand name as the tax-cutting party. This leadership is clear from two stories in State Tax Notes today [subscription req’d]:
- “In an effort to break the budget impasse that has lasted over a month, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has proposed a temporary 1 percentage point sales tax increase. The increase would run for three years and is expected to raise between $5 billion and $6 billion yearly, or over $15 billion for the three-year period.”
- “Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) said August 4 that he would plug the state’s $90 million Medicaid funding hole by raising taxes on state hospitals. Barbour wants to raise hospitals’ gross revenue assessment — the tax hospitals pay on the money that flows into their coffers — from 0.45 percent to 1.08 percent. … The increased tax rate would raise $88 million; the remaining $2 million would be saved by cutting funds from other services. But don’t expect the state’s hospitals to accept this plan lying down. The Mississippi Hospital Association filed a lawsuit against the governor in 2005 when he proposed something similar. …‘It’s a good, fair deal that taxes the hospitals, not our citizens — and rightly so,’ Barbour said in a press release describing the plan.”
Voters and taxpayers in these states will appreciate the strong conservative thrust of these policies. Schwarzenegger’s tax hike is only “temporary,” and will surely expire after runaway state spending has been cut and current fiscal problems solved. And Barbour wisely wants to impose his tax hike on hospitals, which clearly won’t burden the people of Mississippi or the state economy at all.
