Consider the consequences when balking at possible tax hikes

By Dian Vujovich

There’s got to be at least one multi-millionaire on every block in Palm Beach. If that block is filled with condos you can multiply that one by, well, dozens. As for ocean front property, that’s zillionaires row. But no matter where they live, one thing millionaires and zillionaires have in common with every worker bees in America is a difference of opinion when it comes to paying taxes.

Some of the seven-, eight- and nine-figure income people I know feel that they pay Uncle Sam more than enough at tax time while others wouldn’t complain about paying more. My friends in the four-, five- and six-income range feel the same. Given that we live in a state that doesn’t tack on a state income tax, one might think there would be more who are willing to pay more in taxes. Not so.

It baffles me, though, how folks with oodles of money, as well as those with limited incomes, think about tax increases.

If the trade-off between paying more in federal income taxes means things like the roads we drive on and bridges we cross everyday are going to suffer because of neglect, the quality of public education goes down the tubes, disaster services get cut right along with the necessary services we provide to the way too many poor, abused and needy in this country how cross-eyed and greedy can people be? To make others suffer just because you happen to be someone who doesn’t want to pay more in taxes– when the country is in a fiscal mess– is horribly self-centered and selfish.

And by the way, it wasn’t all that long ago—1986, in fact— when the federal income tax rates went as high as 50 percent. In 1981, the high was 70 percent.

So how about we consider the consequences to all across America when shouting “No!” to any income tax increase.

At the same time, how about pulling our heads out of the sand if we really think that the government is collecting enough money to insure that taxes can’t go up. According to the Treasury Dept, government spending has exceeded tax receipts for nearly three years. In fact, the last month there was a surplus was in September of 2008.