State Legislators are considering changing the state bird to reflect how we govern here
My favorite old school liberal, Clark Butler wrote a great letter about using fiscal common sense. He provides a laundry list of great ideas, the following is something I have suggested for a long time;
Raise the tax on luxury and other items so everyone pays the same as those buying food and other necessities. Be careful when going the easy route by overtaxing gambling, tobacco, booze, gas, etc. This can backfire. You only can get so much juice from one lemon no matter how hard you squeeze it.
No government’s budget should be as dependant on its citizens’ bad habits as ours is. Tax revenue from gambling, smoking, and alcohol should go purely to pay for the externalities they cause, not general funds projects.
Isn’t our state legislature full of braniacs? I actually blame closed government more because you have a governor who is able to cover stuff up 11 months out of the year and when the legislators show up, they have no clue of what is going on, so they fart around with abortion and gun laws.