Friday, August 03, 2007

Marion County Tax Burden, Illustrated


My friends at the Marion County Libertarian Party have compiled an interesting set of data, showing the change in the tax burden from 1997 to 2005.

'Change' is to say, 'growth'.


Observe this chart, which shows the local tax burden as a percentage of income. This is not state or federal, mind you. Just local:



So, considering that I felt that Indianapolis-Marion County government was underperforming miserably, is it any wonder I left Indy in 2004? Should anyone be surprised when people of means leave across borders to other counties? For 12% of my income, I want results!


Keep in mind: Immigrants have historically crossed national borders to enter the United States in order to give themselves a better deal. If you curse me, you curse them.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's really no reason to live in Marion County anymore. It's easy enough to get to anywhere you need to be from the doughnut counties, so commute times aren't an issue... and the quality of life outside MC is just so much better in so many ways.

Of course, I live in Arizona, so it's not really an issue for me anymore. ;)

-Andrew

Anonymous said...

"Keep in mind: Immigrants have historically crossed national borders to enter the United States in order to give themselves a better deal. If you curse me, you curse them."

I'm sure you didn't mean this as it read, but most people aren't cursing immigrants - they're cursing illegal immigrants. It's not illegal for us legal citizens to cross county lines! ha.

Mike Kole said...

No, I meant it pretty well how I said it. The key word is "historically". Nativists have historically cursed immigrants- the Irish, the Poles, the Italians, the Chinese. The US was an open-border nation for much of its' history, and that's where the comparison lies.

I was hinting at the possibility in the future that leaving states or counties might go the road immigration took: from open-borders to what we have today... nominally closed borders, with hilarious/tragic results.

I agree to a point. I think most people curse illegal immigrants, but there are plenty of nativists still today who curse any immigrants, seeing some invasion of their birthright somehow. As for me,though, I just flee intolerable situations.