Friday letters: Tax cuts don’t produce prosperity

Our governor’s proposal to drastically cut the state’s income tax rate is a foolhardy idea — exchanging $1.5 billion lost in state revenue for a modest increase in gas taxes. Does that make any sense? Severe pruning will never grow the mythical money tree. Quite the opposite.

Recently Kansas tried slashing its tax rates, expecting prosperity to follow. That state is now nearly bankrupt. Likewise, Louisiana and Wisconsin recently tried the same misguided plan, and with predictably similar results. It is quite revealing, by the way, that Wisconsin’s once exemplary highway system is now extremely underfunded — and of course going into disrepair, like our own.

Cutting taxes has never, ever produced prosperity, except for the very wealthy. The greatest era of U.S. prosperity occurred during the 30 years following World War II. Then, for example, during the Eisenhower administration, the top tax rate was 91 percent. The economy flourished. The wealthy did just fine, but the middle class did even better. They could at last buy homes, send their children to college (using the GI bill was an option) and enjoy some degree of financial security.

And the interstate highway system was constructed during that same prosperous time.

After that came tax cuts, and you know the rest.

Columbia

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Friday letters: Tax cuts don’t produce prosperity."