HB 1005 -- Republicans Finally Listen to Gerry Lange

Call me a liberal, call me a progressive -- I'm still the same political dog.

Call HB 1005 a property tax, a productivity tax, or whatever other euphemism its backers want to use: it's still an income tax. It embraces the principle that my neighbor Gerry Lange has maintained all along, that the government ought to tax people based on how much wealth they produce, not how much wealth they already have.

And it hits the Senate floor this afternooon (or says my little LRC alert). Now I can do without the elimination of the 150% rule -- the idea that Landowner X should pay more taxes because Landowner Y treats his land like a fungible asset rather than a home and because some wealthy out-of-state speculator is willing to skew the local market makes no sense at all.

But that productivity tax? Love it. Absolutely love it. I trust the economists at SDSU to come up with a much more rational, objective, verifiable formula for taxation than the wild guess of the county assessor. And HB 1005 opens the door for replacing all of our obsolete taxes with a fair, rational income tax. (Heck: let's expand this law to everyone: I look forward to a visit from the SDSU economists and Ag Stats Service to determine just how much money Mrs. Madville Times could make on our land from her cucumber and zinnia patch. We'll happily pay taxes based on our organic bounty!)

Thank you to Reps Rhoden, Noem, and Boomgarden, Senators Knudson and Hansen, and all the other good Republicans helping make Gerry Lange's dream come true.