Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Why don't you pick the lint from my pocket while you are at it?

Thanks for all the kind thoughts about my grandfather's death. I won't be able to make it back for the funereal so it really helps. Mommy, Esq. also has some great photos of him on her blog so check it out if you haven't already.

While on vacation for two weeks I have been out of the loop. Not just with work related matters but also with the news, both local and national. As I've written before I am a bit of a news junky. I love my NPR! I was listening to the news on Sunday and found out that our sales tax is increasing from 7.25% to 8.25% today. Um, hello?!? A 13% increase on our sales tax?!? I already think it is ridiculous how much we pay in sales tax because I'm more used to the 5.5% from Massachusetts. Not to mention that our school system is still pretty terrible so where the heck is the money going? Plus, aren't we in a recession? Is raising taxes really the right thing to do...why am I being punished because the state can't balance the budget? Grrrr.

So let's take the increase in sales tax, add to it state income tax, federal income tax and county tax. Yes, I'm looking at almost 50% of my paycheck running off to taxes. At least state and federal income tax comes out of my paycheck before I see it so it's not as painful. But the sales tax hits the bottom line, post income tax. Remind me again why I voted for the Democratic ticket? How about the rest of you? Have you seen any similar increases?

7 comments:

LauraC said...

Well obviously my sales tax went up today too, but only Mecklenburg county went up that high. Ours only goes to 7.75% and it's supposed to be a temporary increase The thing I find odd is that your county public schools are supposed to be bad while the Wake county schools are good (particularly in my ubersuburb).

One thing I found interesting recently is our ABC board prints how much money each city in the county spends at ABC. The ubersuburbs (Cary, Apex) spend disproportionally more on alcohol per capita than the rest of the county. That actually leads me to believe the sin tax will hit the wealthiest areas more.

Personally I don't get worked up over it having lived in California before! Talk about a place with tons of taxes! That's why we didn't move there.

Amanda said...

But its only a 1 cent/dollar increase, that is the way they were spinning it. And temporary my a**, the last temporary tax was never dropped. And now we have to pay more on our wine too, so we can't even drown our money sorrows as cheaply. Oh well, that is what we get for living in the state with the highest taxes in the entire South.

Natalie said...

well, that's one more addition to the list of reasons why you should move back to Massachusetts. Other reasons include but are not limited to:
1) Your favorite person (yours truly) lives there
2) the average IQ is much higher in MA
3) it just gets too damned hot in NC
4) You can't REALLY see what your SUV can do in NC, you need snow and ice to get the full value of your recent purchase
5) Your kids will never really be able to appreciate the ocean if they have to drive 5 hours to get to the closest one
6) Two words: twin cousins
7) Don't tell me there's a place in NC that even touches Yokahama's
8) You live close to Nat = your children get spoiled by her, it's a win win
9) It's getting old playing poker with just you and DH
10) there's no way to justify living in a state that regularly serves fried bologna

H said...

Our sales tax also just went up here in your beloved old MA- from
5 to 6.25, not as easy for me to do in my head:)

Mommy, Esq. said...

Taxachusetts sales tax went up too? I had no idea.

Danielle said...

So I looked ours up and apparently it went up to 8.875% on August 1. Fun! And just to make it even better they also repealed the law that making clothing and shoes under $110 tax exempt.

And they wonder why people want to move out of the city when they have kids!!

Danielle said...

Ugh, look at that typo in my comment! That should be "makes" not "making". Stacey, I know you can understand why I had to post a correction.