Earlier this year I moved from Minnesota to North Dakota. This means that for part of the year I was paying state taxes to one state and to another from about the middle of March on. I downloaded my W-2 today (thanks, no more waiting till April!) and compared the amounts witheld for taxes in each state.
Since I'm not supposed to discuss my salary I won't be using any dollar amounts. Luckily, God created percentages, so I can both laugh/shake my head in disgust at Minnesota and cover my butt at the same time.
Minnesota took 6.2% of my eligible take-home pay. North Dakota took 3.0%. Minnesota has a budget deficit approaching $4 billion dollars. North Dakota has a $2 billion surplus.
Today's lesson: higher taxes mean more money for your government to squander.
Some may argue that I'm not taking into account what I get back (if anything) as a refund. To that I say, shut up. No, actually that's true. But from experience (again, not using dollar amounts) I know about how much I usually got back from the state. It wasn't a lot. And even if it was, Minnesota still had that income to do with as it pleased until April of the following year, every year, before having to give it back. Kinda like an interest-free loan. And still, $4 billion in the hole.
That's because we have one of the largest and most expensive state governments in the US. I guess it also really costs a lot to make all those welfare payments to residents of IL, IN, WI....etc.
ReplyDeleteOur wonderful(and very highly paid) "civil servants" are just so magnanimous with OUR money.