Sunday, March 04, 2007

Blagojevich's Discover Card Tax

Governor Rod Blagojevich latest tax hike idea has been rumored for several weeks—a gross receipts tax on business.


Looking at the Chicago Tribune headline Sunday, it hit me that he is just following Discover Card’s example.

He “only” wants 1%.

That’s the cash back percentage we get when we use Discover Card.

I guess he figures that no one will notice the price of everything going up in Illinois any more than people noticed the price of goods and services increasing when most people started using credit cards.

I wonder if the governor will have special deals each quarter where the government can take 5% from some categories of companies. After all, Discover Card holders get special deals where we get 5% back on certain specified purchases.

Think of all the campaign money he could raise from industries not wanting to be paying 5%, instead of 1%.

And, maybe some business will have the negotiating power of Sam’s Club, where Discover only pays one-fourth of 1%.

I wonder how much such a deal would cost, if Illinois Health Facility board memberships go for $25,000.

Posted first at McHenry County Blog.

3 comments:

Bill Baar 6:21 AM  

I thought Cat had already negotiated a discount.

Anonymous,  12:01 PM  

Blago could even be right that consumers wouldn't notice a 1% hike in goods and services, except that under his plan, goods that have more than one step in the manufacturing process are going to get hit multiple times at each point in the chain where the goods change hands. The power of multiplication is what's going to make this insane.

TA

Anonymous,  5:06 AM  

Actually, 1% is quite an imperceptible thing. I agree that not every man could notice the difference. As for me, I do not keep an eye on such things.

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