Hidden Taxes
High Costs of Constitution Reform

By whatever name, tax burden on average people is heavy enough I'm not often shocked, but was when The Huntsville Times began banging the drum for tax inI creases. This was a moral imperative because - gasp! - Alabama's citizens are paying the nation's lowest taxes. I conducted an inquiry, asking working stiffs if they thought they should pay more taxes. "No" was the unanimous reply. My poll turned ugly on several occasions and near-fatal once when Richard Jones choked on a bologna sandwich. Fortunately, a few sharp blows dislodged the object. I knew the risk. A few years back, Richard and his lovely wife, Connie, of Guntersville, tracked each cent spent and found to their horror that 60 percent of their income had been siphoned off by various layers of government. (Yes, 60 percent!) At that time Richard was an electronics technician at Anniston Army Depot and Connie a public school teacher. Even without the four children, they were not rich. The ugly facts Richard introduced me to the ugly fact that not all government taxes are called taxes. Various licenses, fees, etc. escape the label. Mere semantics. We know our paycheck is stripped of federal and state tax, along with Medicare, Social Security, and the like. We know we pay sales tax. But, taxes so permeate life that it's all too easy to lose track. Take a learner's permit test, pay $5. Pass? The permit itself is $20. A driver's license is $20 - every four years. Car tags include state, county, city, and school taxes plus the tag fee. You pay an auto luxury tax long before you'll buy a true luxury car. Park your car? Drop coins into a city parking meter. In 1998 over half the cost of a $1.33 gallon of gasoline was taxes. Between 1980 and 1998, gas prices dropped 22 percent; gas taxes soared 195 percent! Own a home? Ante up property tax! An Alabama utilities tax haunts your utility bill. Phone bills boast federal, state, and local taxes and no less than four government fees - not quite taxes. Want to put food on the table like grandpa did? A hunting license is $16; fishing license, $9.50. Uncle Sam scrapes off a 10 percent excise tax on pistols and revolvers, an 11 percent tax on other firearms and an 11 percent tax on shells and cartridges. Have a baby? Buy a birth certificate! Take her for immunizations; the feds grab a 75-cent per shot tax. Miller time? On average, the cost of that cold one is 43 percent tax. Alabama state excise taxes include a beer tax of 53 cents per gallon, a spirits tax of 58 percent, 16.5 cents per pack of cigarettes and 16 cents per gallon of gas. Auto rental taxes, hotel taxes, inheritance tax, business taxes, airline/airport taxes, gift taxes, marriage license fee, pet licenses. Hidden everywhere Various levels of government hide many taxes. In Alabama you pay a stealth insurance premium tax unseen on your statement! (For more on hidden taxes, see the National Taxpayer Union Foundation at http://www.ntu.org). "More taxes for education!" the pundits plea. U.S. Secretary of Education Roderick Paige retorts, "After spending $125 billion of Title I money over 25 years, we have virtually nothing to show for it." Egyptian peasants working the fields for pharaoh were taxed 20 percent of their crop. In Medieval Europe, the manor lord could claim one-third of a serf's working time. In 21st century North Alabama, the Joneses are raped for 60 percent of their income. In his groundbreaking book "For Good and Evil - The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization," Charles Adams observes "Many great nations taxed themselves to death; conversely, many nations became great because of the right kind of taxation, taxation that stimulated growth and enterprise." Huntsville's Craig Cox is one of The Times' community columnists for 2001. More on Taxes © The Huntsville Times

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