Putting the "gross" in Gross Receipts

April 29, 2007

Issue: Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has proposed a Gross Receipts Tax on any Illinois business venture that has gross receipts in excess of $2 million annually. If this tax goes into effect no business would consider moving to Illinois and existing business owners would have to strongly consider moving from Illinois or closing their doors altogether.

1st degree: Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was riding to the office one unseasonably warm March morning (man-made global warming strikes again.) and noticed he was sweating. He asked the driver why the Hell it so warm in the car and was told the A/C wasn’t working. After berating the driver all the way to the office, Daley was really over-heated.

2nd degree: Stomping into his office, he noticed his personal lap dog Rod Blagojevich admiring his hair-helmet in the mayor’s mirror. “Sit!” Daley commanded to the submissive governor.

3rd degree: Once seated, Rod was treated to a tirade regarding the lack of funds being funneled to Chicago as the mayor explained, “I can’t even get a car with a functioning air conditioner!”

4th degree: A cowering Governor Blagojevich stammers about the state budget not being sufficient to fulfill the mayor’s needs.

5th degree: Mayor Daley gently informed the governor that he was put in the governor’s office for one reason, to serve the whims of The Chicago Machine, so he better find a way to get the money to its rightful place.

6th degree: In the wake of his mayoral spanking, Governor Blagojevich decided to prove he was a good liberal while finding a way to finance M other Chicago’s desires. He decided to tax the gross receipts of any business that takes in more than $2 million annually.

Of course he says big business does not pay its share under the current tax structure and apparently he sees $2 million a year as an indicator of big business. A thinking person, something Blagojevich could never be mistaken for, would see a few problems with the new plan:

Gross receipts are everything the business takes in, not the profits. (We assume a business has payroll, other taxes, insurance, advertising, rent, mortgages, utilities, etc. to pay from those gross receipts.)
Many people rely on these businesses for their means of supporting their families. The employees of the businesses that are forced to leave the state or close their doors will no longer have the means.

I would think anyone outside of Chicago and Madison County can see what a bad idea the GRT is.

Welcome to Conservative Thoughts from a Common Man

I was thinking this morning, as I scraped the ice from my windshield, maybe there is something to global warming after all. I don't remember Southern Illinois being this cold in April. Perhaps climate change is a real problem. My charitable instincts are urging me to send a check to Al Gore to help him pay for his carbon offsets (which he apparently buys from his own company) so he can pursue the noble crusade with even more vigor!

Later today I was thinking about the potential ramifications of Rudy Giuliani winning the Republican nomination for President. I was trying to determine if I could cast my vote for him with a clear conscience. After all, wouldn't he be far better than Hillary "bringing socialism back" Clinton, Barack Hussein Obama, or the spirit channeling personification of the reason health insurace costs are so high (John "the hair" Edwards?) My initial response was, yes, he would be undoubtedly better than any liberal candidate.... but there is still a problem. How important is the abortion issue? To me that is something I can't get past. I gave myself a simple test to determine if the abortion issue would preclude me from voting for Giuliani. I asked myself what issue could be chosen as more important than abortion. If there was an issue more important maybe I could vote for him based on a conservative view he holds on that particular issue and hope he only appoints constructionist justices as he has indicated he would. No issue I could think of met the importance criteria. At the risk of sounding like John Edwards channeling the spirit of a dead child to win a lawsuit, I thought, "If the millions of babies who were killed in the womb could be polled, what issue would take precedence over abortion?" My test resulted in the realization that while I admire some aspects of Giuliani's character, I cannot cast a vote for anyone that refuses to protect the most innocent of people.

This post is the beginning of what I hope to be a way of communicating what I see as important to anyone who cares to read it.