Superintendent calls for increased sales tax

Last night's MDL front-page article on school funding was chock full of coffee-shop chatter material. Buried at the end of the article was Madison Central School District superintendent Dr. Frank Palleria's call for a one-percent increase in the sales tax. He says that if the leadership (the state legislature, I assume) would show some guts, impose such a tax increase, and dedicate it to funding schools, we could solve a lot of our problems.

I'm certainly on board with Dr. Palleria in terms of wanting more money for schools. However, increasing the sales tax is the wrong way to go about it. South Dakota's tax structure is already grossly regressive; why pile more tax burden on the lower and middle income workers of the state (including the teachers) while letting the wealthy elites avoid taxes on their income? As I outline in my proposal for a state income tax, we could replace -- not supplement, but replace, i.e. eliminate -- our property and sales taxes with a simple state income tax without increasing the tax burden for a majority of South Dakotans. A state income tax would most likely decrease the net taxes paid by South Dakotans who need tax relief the most: low-income workers, struggling farmers, and retirees on fixed incomes. And just to top off the advantages, getting rid of property and sales taxes could spur a boom in consumer spending and construction, economic growth that would translate directly into even more income tax revenue and more funding for the schools. Why tax people more for buying food? Let's push our legislators to show some real courage and overhaul our unfair tax system, for the good of the taxpayers and the schools.