8/23/2009 - Further Taxing of Business Not Answer to Budget Shortfall

by Jay C. Moon, CEcD, FM
MMA President and CEO 
Letter to the Editor, The Clarion-Ledger Aug. 23, 2009 

In Dr. Marianne Hill’s recent editorial (“The State Budget Blues,” Aug. 9), discussing Mississippi’s current revenue shortfall, she asserts that corporations should pay additional taxes, penalties and fines to enhance the state’s general fund budget. However, further taxing of state businesses would worsen the problem.
 

Mississippi businesses, including manufacturers, already pay more than their fair share of taxes through property, payroll, unemployment and workers’ compensation taxes as well as fees for environmental permits and other regulatory mandates. Also, Mississippi is one of the few states that still levies inventory and franchise taxes on businesses. In addition, the people employed by businesses pay income and sales taxes, thereby adding to revenue collections.
 

Several issues currently being discussed in Congress, such as the “Cap and Trade” bill, the health care reform bill and the so-called “Card Check” bill, if passed, would add even more tax burden to our businesses. And Congress will, in all likelihood, allow other tax benefits, available to the business community for several years, to expire. This inaction alone will add significantly to the tax burden carried by our state’s and nation’s manufacturers.
 

To require businesses to pay more taxes and fees, when foreign competitors have little or no tax burden or regulatory requirements, would be detrimental to their ability to compete in a global environment. And to suggest raising taxes, regulatory fees or penalties during the worst economic downtown in 80 years is exactly the wrong policy to adopt.
 

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