Like many of Gov.

Monday, December 04, 2000

Like many of Gov. Jesse Ventura’s ideas, his proposal to extend the state sales tax to some services drew immediate negative reaction from Republicans and Democrats. But Ventura keeps coming up with the ideas, and that’s what we elected him for – to talk about the things traditional politicians won’t touch, and to do it intelligently.

With the sales tax measure, he has done both. Changing the way the state collects its taxes can be a good step.

Extending the sales tax to things it didn’t touch before may sound unappealing. But the change will likely fund Ventura’s proposal to fund schools entirely with state money. That means the new sales tax money will only be replacing an existing tax: property taxes that now help fund local school districts. If the state pays for schools, the local property taxes can go down.

That will be a relief for local districts, especially in rural areas like Mower County. Farmers and retired people on fixed incomes especially stand to benefit from lowered property taxes.

The tax would just be redistributed. Instead of everyone being taxed based on the value of their property, those who spend more – those who would seem to be able to afford it most – will be taxed more.

Some will say adding the tax to services is a bad idea. But by broadening the number of things subject to sales tax, while lowering the sales tax rate, serves to spread the burden around more. The overall amount of tax collected will go up, but when more things are taxed, it’s less likely that any one person will purchase as high a percentage of the taxed items or services.

Best of all, the sales tax is a tax people can control on their own. We all must make some purchases, but individuals can control what they pay by changing what they buy.

We hope legislative leaders give the idea serious thought, beyond their initial negative reaction. If nothing else, such proposals make for good discussion about what taxes are supposed to be.