Since most of the tax hikes passed by the 2009 Legislature will expire after two years – and the federal stimulus money will be gone – we’ll be right back where we are today in 2011. And when it comes time to debate and vote on whether or not to renew this year’s billion dollar tax hike, the Las Vegas Review-Journal warns that Democrats will argue that to “keep the taxes in place really isn’t an increase because the levies will remain the same.”
So the corollary question follows: Would voting for retaining the 2009 tax hikes be a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
Yep.
“Extending a tax hike that would lapse is the same as passing a new tax hike,” writes Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and sponsor of the Pledge. “Without a vote the tax would lapse; therefore, an extension vote is a tax hike.”
Questions?