Wednesday, October 22, 2008

2006 Income tax paid: $17.8M, local aid: $3.9M

Welp ... I finally tracked down the information I was looking for from the state.

Read it and weep should be the caption ...

Here's a pointer to the info...

The income tax receipts for Auburn for the latest year on record (2006) were around $17.8M. This is according to a senior economist for the DOR DLS. By way of comparison, our local aid for the year was around $3.9M according to DOR DLS. So our money DOES go east and never return.

There's a discrepancy/overhead/loss from the state of $17.8-3.9=$13.9M for 6500 taxpayers we would have saved (net) if there were no income tax. The numbers are a little different for last year because we got more aid, but I bet we paid more too. They don't have that yet though. In any event, think about it - if you could have $14 or 15M in your pocket (among 6500 people that's an average of $2138 for 06 numbers) or let's be fair, if we made up for TWICE the amount of money we get back, say $1000 in your pocket with MORE money for a library or a curriculum coordinator or police/fire, wouldn't you do it?

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