Solutions to the State's Fiscal Problems

I have always been an advocate of making businesses pay their fair share to locate and make a really good profit off of the citizens of that particular state, or city.  For way too long now, cities and states have been depending on the most popular sailing tool to getting businesses to locate and create jobs was the degree of tax breaks that they could offer.  As a business owner myself, it would not be very intelligent of me to search and find the best deal to locate my factories or retail businesses.  If I am given the opportunity to locate in a specific state for 10 plus years and pay no state or local taxes, then that would be the place for me.

What brings me to this point was when I heard a Wisconsin Republican State Senator say that they had raised taxes on businesses and the wealthy in the past which resulted in them moving out of state and the non-wealthy and dependent on the state moved in.  It really bothered me because it was as if he was saying let's bow down to the wealthy, not ask them to pay anything and cut off the poorest of the poor as well.  Under that scenario the only group left to drain is the middle class.  I must have been the only one who heard it because no one else is reporting it.  It made me begin to try and see if a layman with no political experience could come up with a solution to this dilemma and I believe that I have.

I think that the first thing states need to do is recognize that any efforts made to fix the issue should not be done to effect the current year but to look long term, say over the time frame of their term and see what they could do to fix the problem.  If the issue can not be fixed within that time frame, it could always be started and hopefully because they are working to fix the problem, voters will give them a second term to complete the job.  The next thing they need to do is realize that the businesses that locate within that state has only one loyalty and that is to the enormous tax break that they were given to entice them to come.  To really secure that business, states should concentrate on a few of the seldom thought about reasons for businesses to locate in a specific place which among the most important is the educational level of the workforce.  States who concentrate more on that level will not only have one of the best reasons for businesses to locate but can keep them there as well as now improve the overall standards of its citizens.

The most obvious place that are often overlooked by cities and states when it comes to the choice of business over population is that those who reside in the area do not mind giving a little more to make their city/state the envy of the nation but what they do not like and will probably not stand for is when they are the only ones being forced to belly-up to the bar.  Fairly distributing the responsibility of the states welfare is something every one residing in that state, business or citizen, should rally behind.  It is also an excellent idea for those making these decisions to step up as well.  One of the most important lessons learned in the years spent as a U.S. Marine was "leading by example".  You never asked any of your juniors to do anything that you would not do, so to ask for the citizens to sacrifice more than they have already without asking it of others as well as yourself, is not the safest bet.

The American Unions have already donated to the recovery of this nation, those that have not are those who have made the biggest profits.  If politicians are so worried about those individuals and businesses leaving because they are asked to do more, then not only should the businesses be exiled but so should those politicians.  That's just my opinion and I could be wrong.  

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