How To Boil A Frog (or a Taxpayer)

by Conduit For Action: The old tale goes… You can’t just put a frog into boiling water because the frog will just jump out, but if you put the frog in cold water and continue to turn up the temperature one degree at a time and the frog won’t realize it. Eventually the water is boiling and the frog is cooked without ever realizing what is happening.

That tale probably doesn’t work for frogs, but the same strategy has proven to work on Arkansas taxpayers. Just consider how the Arkansas sales tax became one of the highest in the nation.

Arkansas’ first sales tax was a temporary 2% sales tax passed in 1935. The tax was sold as temporary but in 1937 when it was about to expire the legislature extended it. You will hear this line again, “We are not imposing a tax, we are just continuing it.”

The current sales tax was passed in 1941 and was still at the rate of 2%. It increased to 3% in 1957; 4% in 1983; 4.5% in 1991; 4.626% in 1997; 5.126% in 2001; 6% in 2003; and 6.5% in 2012.

ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATES IN THE NATION

Working one degree at a time, the politicians have increased the Arkansas state sales tax to 6.5% so it is now the ninth highest rate in the nation.

It gets even worse. The legislature authorized cities and counties to also impose sales taxes. The cities and counties have been adding to your sales tax burden one degree at a time and now the average local sales tax is 2.93%.

When the average local sales tax is combined with the state sales tax that produces a combined rated of 9.43%. Arkansas’ combined sales tax rate is the third highest combined rate in the nation.

What is the lowest state sales tax rate in the nation? Zero!

(The comparison of Arkansas rates to other states is from State and Local Sales Tax Rates, 2019 by the Tax Foundation.)

TEMPORARY TO PERMANENT TAX

The last sales tax increase of ½% was a temporary tax to pay off a highway bond issue and it is scheduled to expire in 2023. But just like in 1937, now that the legislature is getting the money from a temporary tax, they don’t want to let it go, saying, “We are not imposing a tax, we are just continuing it.”

The proposed new ½ percent sales tax will be on your November ballot. If passed the ½% sales tax is to be collected once the temporary tax expires in 2023. The politicians want to make sure you will never be able to end the new tax and are putting it in the Arkansas Constitution where it will be nearly impossible to repeal.

Want to see if your legislators voted for this new tax which will be on your November ballot? Here are links to the Senate votes and the House votes.

ONE DEGREE, ONE DEGREE, ONE DEGREE … MAY NOT WORK ON FROGS BUT ARKANSAS POLITICIANS ARE USING IT ON YOU.
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Conduit for Action promotes freedom and free enterprise policies by effective action that will create a better life for all Arkansas citizens.

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