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It’s astounding how many ways governments find to repackage what can trivially be done with tax policy. What’s next, income-based pricing at the gas station? J
by ericpauley 4y ago
It’s astounding how many ways governments find to repackage what can trivially be done with tax policy.
What’s next, income-based pricing at the gas station? Just price it into the tax rates. This appears to basically be the equivalent of a (very approximately) .1% tax hike and a fixed electric rate across the board. But instead of that, which can be easily reasoned about, we get a death-by-a-thousand-cuts approach like this.
- itake 4y agoSeriously. This seems way easier to implement at the state level. I don’t want to have to run around updating my income to every service provider. Increase or decrease taxes at the state level, not at each point of payment.
- prng2021 4y agoLol since when is implementing tax policy changes a trivial thing to do? It’s literally one of the hardest things to do at any level of government.
- dragonwriter 4y ago> It’s astounding how many ways governments find to repackage what can trivially be done with tax policy. Shifting the cost of electricity from per-kwh usage charges to fixed monthly connection charges cannot trivially be done through tax policy, unless one counts tariffs for regulated services as taxes (which, importantly, the California Constitution does not), in which case this is being done through tax policy. The equivalent of making the fixed connection charges income sensitive could have trivially been done through (e.g.) income tax policy, but that would have required parallel changes to tax and tariff policy, whereas this one change to tariff policy is simpler, even before considering the state constitutional issues that, in California, a tax policy change (even if structured so that there is no net increase) that involves an increase in any portion of any tax in California requires either a legislative supermajority or an (expensive, in practice, even if successful) public ballot measure, whereas a tariff change requires neither.
- ericpauley 4y agoI'm referring specifically to the income grading, not shifting to a fixed-fee model. In reality, the legislature (at local/state/national levels) has already made the tax code so convoluted and politicized, which is why musical chairs accounting stunts like this are necessary in the first place.
- singron 4y agoIs it really simpler to document income to PG&E for every household in California, every year, in perpetuity? Household income isn't tracked by the IRS or FTB, which tracks individual income, so they need a different reporting structure.