Tennessee Taxpayers Get a Bailout (Along with Everyone Else)

Not a fan of the stimulus? Consider this:

State and local governments collected 2.9% less in tax money in Q1 of this year than in Q1 of 2008. Fortunately, the federal government stepped in to bail them out.

Thanks to quick bursts of stimulus money from Washington, the total cash available to state and local governments is 1.6% more than the first quarter of last year. Not quite enough to keep up with inflation, but still a huge help. Without the stimulus, the states would be in a deep, deep mess.

Thank goodness we are one nation, indivisible. And thank goodness the Republicans didn’t get to stand in the way.

With the dramatic upswing in money from Washington and downturn in various tax revenues, federal funds are now the biggest individual source of income for state governments for the first time ever.

Another interesting tidbit from the same article:

State sales tax revenues are down 2% nationwide because of the economic crisis.

But state income tax revenues are down 11%.

I still believe an income tax is a stronger, fairer system but I'm not going to close my eyes (or my blog) to interesting facts just because they're inconvenient to my position.

What could you do with $676?

I don’t know about you, but $676 is a big deal to me. It’s a huge chunk of change. It’ll feed me for a month and a half. It’ll gas up my tank for six months. It’s five days in Florida this summer.

It’s real money that would make a big difference to most Americans.

But to the TNGOP, it’s chump change. It’s meaningless. They think “most Americans” don’t need it or want it or couldn’t do anything with it.

Here’s the deal – According the TNGOP itself, the “Obama tax credit” is worth $676 “to most Americans, this year.”

Of course they try to hide that fact with a little math. They take that $676 and break it down to “$13 per week,” which they scoff at and ridicule.

Well, sorry, I’m not an idiot. I can handle a little multiplication. $13 x 52 weeks. That’s $676 this year, and that’s not meaningless to most Americans.

And if you don’t get that, no wonder the Republican Party keeps losing elections.

But hey, thanks for pointing out that Obama just cut taxes for most Americans. Please keep pointing that out.