No Voo Doo For Wilmington

When a new Wilmington city council and administratWilmingtonnstalled in 2016 the "no new taxes" mantra of their predecessors was examined and put to sleep. The city's infrastructure, mainly streets, had been deteriorating for years and city government had been kicking the repair can down those streets for several years in fear that the voters would through them out if they even hinted at the need for increased revenue. The voters were even denied the opportunity to speak for themselves on the tax issue.

When given the chance by the present government the voters spoke and opted for the necessary revenue needed to fix the streets and provide essential services.

The recent federal and state governments could take a lesson from our fair city. What have they done to fix their infrastructure, revenue and deficit problems? The state cut revenue under the illusion that lower taxes would increase commercial activity and actually increase total tax revenue.

The tactic known as trickle down or supply side economics failed and the state budget is the worse for it.

The deficit and debt burdened federal government is about to walk down a similar path of cutting revenue to increase revenue. Yes really!

Providing essential services to the citizens costs money and must be paid for somehow.

Hey up there! Take a cue from the shining city of Wimington as you contemplate our future. A well explained, fair and limited tax increase will be accepted by the voters. Trust them.

A couple of examples of supply myth busting

Paul Hunter

paulhunter45177@gmail.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics

Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981, so the first fiscal year he budgeted was 1982 and the final year was 1989. During Reagan's presidency, the national debtgrew from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion. ... Federal revenues averaged 17.5% GDP from 1982–89, versus the 1974–81 average of 17.8% GDP.

Reagan Deficits and Debt Ceilings

Deficits http://www.beingfactual.com/reagan-vs-obama-deficit-edition/

Reagan was in Office from Jan, 21 1981 until Jan 20, 1989. The deficit at the end 1981 was $78 billion dollars.  His last budget deficit was $152 billion dollars. So during his term he had a net increase of only double, not triple.  the deficit under Reagan reached $207 billion in 1983, two years after Reagan passed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 [3] which reduced taxes, effectively reducing tax revenue. It turned out to be too much loss of revenue, combined with increased spending, so in 1982 the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 [4] rescinded some of those cuts, and a few more laws in following years helped bring in more revenue, but with increased spending, decreased the budget deficit back to the $152 billion in 1989. Revenue doubled in Reagan’s 8 years, but so did spending, which in turn caused the doubling of the deficit. [5