The Yankee Institute for Public Policy is a group in Connecticut that looks at ways to improve governance in the state. In one of their recent papers, they pointed out that this state pays no attention to the cost of raising revenue, something that the institute believes is a mistake. To illustrate this point, the Yankee Institute points out that more than half of the various taxes and fees charged by the state raise less than 1% of total revenue. On top of this, the state spends nearly the entire 1% of revenue just paying the costs of collecting the revenue in question.
This may sound like a small item, but it is not. Just imagine how much time individuals and businesses in the state spend complying with the taxes and fees in this group. During the course of a year, tens of thousands of hours are wasted and surely jobs are lost across the state because of the burden of complying with these taxes and fees that serve no meaningful purpose.
A sensible approach to state taxation would be to look at revenue sources to determine how much is received, how much collection costs, and how much taxpayers spend in complying with these items. Let's hope that someone in Hartford pays attention to this study. They certainly ought to do so.
This may sound like a small item, but it is not. Just imagine how much time individuals and businesses in the state spend complying with the taxes and fees in this group. During the course of a year, tens of thousands of hours are wasted and surely jobs are lost across the state because of the burden of complying with these taxes and fees that serve no meaningful purpose.
A sensible approach to state taxation would be to look at revenue sources to determine how much is received, how much collection costs, and how much taxpayers spend in complying with these items. Let's hope that someone in Hartford pays attention to this study. They certainly ought to do so.
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