Mike’s Blog: What’s Not To Like?

I snapped this photo on North Avenue in Melrose Park a couple weeks ago.

I am reluctant to agree with this sign however funny it is, but with the testimony in the Rezko trial I am becoming wary of our beleaguered governor. Still, I like him and some of his decisions and actions as governor. He takes a pretty refreshing position on issues in most cases and clearly isn’t afraid to do something different.  I like that his family stays in Chicago and he commutes to Springfield.  I’ve seen the governor’s mansion in Springfield and I sure wouldn’t want to live there either. They should turn it into a museum or conference center rather than have this hulking ceremonial residence in the middle of po-dunk Illinois.  But I digress…

If nothing else, I like that our governor is an independent thinker, an unabashed Cubs fan and isn’t afraid to say he likes rock & roll music (he is a big Elvis fan). Maybe he is destined to join the long list of Illinois governors who end up in prison. But for me, its good to see someone other than an old establishment white guy as our elected leader.

This book might be a very interesting and timely read in light of the plan being floated for the state of Illinois to purchase Wrigley Field…

Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit

There is no denying the American economy has shifted over the past 30 years or so from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. Every day there are media reports of jobs being cut, plants closing, more off-shoring to China, India, and beyond. The big steel mills in Gary are about gone, Detroit no longer is the hub of auto manufacturing, there is not doubt the globalization of the past decade or so has eroded our manufacturing base. Usually, the news articles on this subject bemoan what is lost in jobs when a plant closes or scales back.  What seems to go unreported is the shifting tax base.

The present sales tax structure in the US is antiquated. We collect sales tax on goods only, and often consumers can skirt that tax by buying over the Internet! Businesses that buy from out of state are required to pay a “use tax” if they are not charged sales tax, but enforcement is sketchy. Guess what is not taxed at all?  Services.  And we are now firmly entrenched as a service-based economy but services are not taxable.  No wonder local, regional, and federal governments are scrambling to balance the books without cutting the services (there’s that word again) we all have come to rely on. Services are not taxed, and more and more of our domestic businesses are service based!

Certainly goods made elsewhere and sold in the US are taxed (except when bought over the Web in most cases) at the point of sale. But why isn’t there a sales tax on services? Wouldn’t that be an equitable concept to introduce? Even just a couple percent… wouldn’t that be fair? 

Now, I am certainly not a tax advocate or an economist in any way. But is seems to me that the way purchases are taxed needs revision to more fairly reflect what is happening in our modern economy. Taxing bodies seem to keep upping the rate they collect already which seems unfairly biased. Someone make a case why services shouldn’t be taxable in this day and age. 

With the Barack Obama campaign making a statement with his margin of victory in Iowa, a state where 2% of the voting population identifies as African-American, it brings for discussion why such a state is so influential in the race for the US Presidency?  I’ve been to Iowa many, many times. I have known many Iowans over the years. And I don’t think the good citizens of Iowa are very representative of the population a US President would be elected to govern.  So, who really cares what Iowa thinks anyway?  I mean, if they are so important to the process, why did only 10% of eligible voters even participate in the caucus?  You’d think, given their once-every-four-years moment in the national sunshine, more people would turn out?  I used to be embarrassed and disillusioned when I would hear numbers like 40%, 50%, 60% percent turnout is expected in local elections.  But really, just ten percent - and in a state that really is not very diverse as a whole anyway?  What a bizarre situation.

 That said, Obama definitely made a statement yesterday. I’m eager to see where he takes it from here.