[LPL Board of Directors] Tax Reform PRESS RELEASE - for your approval

[Franklin Griffin]

If politicians were serious about day care for children, instead of just sloganizing about it, nothing they could do would improve the quality of child care more than by lifting the heavy burden of taxation that forces so many families to have both parents working.
Thomas Sowell

--- On Tue, 3/26/13, Adrien Monteleone <chairman at lplouisiana.org> wrote:


From: Adrien Monteleone <chairman at lplouisiana.org>
Subject: [LPL Board of Directors] Tax Reform PRESS RELEASE - for your approval
To: "Mailing list for LPL Board of Directors" <scc at lplouisiana.org>
Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2013, 2:41 AM



Since the Tax Reform discussion is heating up and on the agenda in a few weeks, I'd like to issue the following press release to inject the LPL into the debate.

Please offer any critiques or suggestions.  Also, if you'd like to take ownership of one of the quotes, or provide your own (without adding too much to the word count) please let me know.

I'd like to release this tomorrow, but I can wait till later in the week perhaps.  Please get your comments in quickly so this can be a timely release.



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Libertarian Party of Louisiana Weighs In On Tax Reform Debate

Lafayette, Louisiana (March 26, 2013)—The Libertarian Party of Louisiana (LPL) applauds the current plans for tax reform but says the proposals fall far short of a serious effort. Libertarians fully support the elimination of the barbaric and confiscatory practice of taking money earned by hard working citizens via so-called “income taxes.” However, they caution that any serious tax reform must include reductions in bloated government spending.

The LPL scoffs at attempts to characterize tax reform in class envy terms. “Fairness,” Libertarians contend, should never be a standard by which to judge taxation. Instead, the party believes that a tax should be judged by how much it negatively impacts the ability of consumers to meet their needs with the limited resources of their paychecks and savings. A tax, notes the LPL, needs to be as light and unobtrusive as possible so it is not a burden upon business or consumers. “A tax on a wage or salary is outright theft of your legitimately acquired property and is unfit for a free society,” said state chairman Adrien Monteleone.

Mr. Monteleone also notes that, “the current hang-ups by detractors over ‘revenue neutrality’ are red herrings—a socialist and progressive ploy that is a throwback from the 1980’s era efforts at national tax and spending reform. Democrats used ‘neutrality’ to thwart the move to reduce bloated government in a ‘compromise’ to get bills passed. This resulted in monstrous deficits.” He continues, “Cast aside the flawed idea of revenue neutrality, and reformers can focus on raising legitimate revenue. If this is not enough money to fund the current levels of government spending, then the obvious next step is to reduce those bloated levels of spending. If serious spending reform were considered, there would be no need to even raise sales tax rates or extend the current tax base. Personal and business taxes can still be eliminated, and it might even be possible to lower sales tax rates further.”

“Extending the base to include services is also problematic when determining the ‘final consumer’ of those services as in the case of engineering, architectural, and other fees in the construction industry. Who is the final consumer, the architect, the builder, the contractor, the home owner? Is the administration suggesting taxation upon taxation upon taxation?” asks Mr. Monteleone.

The LPL applauds the administration’s effort to simplify sales tax filing for businesses, but they suggest that sales should be taxable at the point of sale and never at point of delivery. This would be far simpler and easier to implement and comply with. Such a move would also provide economic incentive for local jurisdictions to keep their sales tax rates as low as possible. Some of these local rates alone are as high as 5-6%.

The Libertarian Party is currently the third largest political party in Louisiana and is the fastest growing party in the State, growing over 50% since this time last year. The Party is currently organizing on the parish level to begin seriously contesting local elections and will be recruiting candidates for congressional, legislative and statewide elections over the next two years. For more information on the LPL or its positions, visit LPLouisiana.org.

Contact: 
Adrien Monteleone, chairman
chairman at lplouisiana.org
337-593-8208
###

-- 
In Liberty,

Adrien Monteleone - Chairman
Libertarian Party of Louisiana

-----Inline Attachment Follows-----


_______________________________________________
SCC mailing list
SCC at lplouisiana.org
http://lplouisiana.org/mailman/listinfo/scc_lplouisiana.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lplouisiana.org/pipermail/scc_lplouisiana.org/attachments/20130326/8f1f8f36/attachment.html>