Texas has a very high sales tax at 6.25 percent, and Austin adds on 2 percentage points. I’ve always thought we were high in this category.
Before our current vacation in Colorado, I was pleased to notice that its sales tax rate is only 2.9 percent. On my first purchase in Steamboat Springs, though, the tax rate was 8.4 percent — the town adds 5.5 percentage points to the state rate. Annoying to me, but sensible, and probably efficient and equitable. After all, much of the purchasing is by tourists like me, and our demand for goods here is probably quite inelastic, so the excess burden of the tax is small.
Also, this is a pretty fancy tourist destination, so the tax is probably somewhat progressive overall. Finally, as my wife notes, without such a tax we wouldn’t be paying for the public services that the town provides us. So I guess I can’t complain.
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i never understood complaining about taxes- the rational response is to critique what the tax money is spent on- complaining about taxes is about as mature as complaining about stop signs
Chicago is 10.25% and if you are shopping near Navy Pier they add 1% making it 11.25%.
In Birmingham, Alabama, we currently have a 10% sales tax, bumped up from 9% by our fiscally incompetent and now federally indicted mayor so he can build a useless domed stadium.
So your premise is that the sales tax is OK because only rich people live in Steamboat Springs? Who ran the cash register that ran up your purchase?
I wonder if there is any city or county in Colorado that doesn’t add on to the 2.9% state rate? One site I google’d says the average sales tax rate in Colorado is 6.4%.
Why does your wife view the public services as something provided to you, the tourist, rather than as something provided to local businesses to help them attract tourists? Of course, you might pay for it either way, but with a higher sales tax businesses can show a lower sticker price.
Why is demand for goods Steamboat Springs “quite inelastic”? That makes no sense. People will consume more or less goods there as a function of the price of those goods. If the tax is too high, people may choose to vacation elsewhere.
It’s like that all over Colorado. State+County+City+Mall Improvement District+… taxes make if nearly impossible to figure out how much you really are going to pay for something before you get to the register. Plus each of the different taxes are only applicable to certain things (Some don’t tax food or clothes, others do but at a different rate).
But then as you said, I’m less angered by local sales taxes. I’ve always thought that our marginal tax rate should be the largest locally and decrease as the government gets bigger: high local taxes, lower state taxes, lowest federal taxes. This way you pay the most to take care of the place you live in and have the most control over elected officials. Seems to be the fairest to me.