Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Biggest Mooch of Tax Dollars? Public Sector Unions

From Pj media:
Here’s a simple piece of arithmetic to keep in mind after Wisconsin voters overwhelmingly supported Gov. Scott Walker and California voters backed pension cuts for retired municipal workers. I reviewed some of these numbers last October in this space, and add some state-level detail below. Back on Jan. 24 I insisted that “Obama is toast” because of the rotten economy. It’s sure starting to look that way.

State and local property tax collections (blue line in the graph below) have risen by 10%, from $400 billion to $440 billion, since 2008, even though the price of homes in most American markets (red line)  has fallen by 30% since 2008. Your house is worth less and your property taxes have gone up. Most of the $440 billion in property taxes is paid by homeowners. That compares with the $380 billion a year or so that homeowners pay on the $10 trillion in outstanding home mortgage debt. Homeowners now pay roughly as much in property taxes as in mortgages interest. It used to be a quarter to a third as much. No wonder home prices remain depressed.

Things are even worse in Wisconsin than in most American states. As shown in the chart below, property tax collections have risen by nearly $25 billion, or almost 20% in Gov. Walker’s state, compared to a 10% increase nationally. No wonder Wisconsin voters backed Walker by a margin of nearly 3:2. There are a lot more people paying property taxes to pay the salaries and benefits of government workers than there are government workers.



California is the worst of all: Despite one of the weakest housing markets in the country, property tax collections in California spiked by nearly 50% since 2008.



State and local government spending doubled since the property boom began in 1998:



The federal government’s spending rose even faster, but it is borrowing $1 out of every $3 it spends, but state and local governments can’t do that by law. So they have pushed up tax collections even while federal tax collections have fallen.


See, folks? This is why people came out for Walker. More people are learning that they are paying a few people more and more to support a minority of people who scream about everyone else paying fair shares but themselves. Hardly anyone gets all health or pensions paid for anymore, if they are even offered. Why should everyone else pay more and more while these do not. And right now it is especially wrong because property values are going down. So, even as you the taxpayer are ruined, you have to pay higher taxes for something going down in value, and the unions still say you aren't doing enough. Shameful. Hopefully more and more Americans will wake up and see that this is one group of people who need entitlement reform, not enrichment.