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Lincoln, Nebraska Mayor's Race: Suzanne Geist Wants To Triple The Sales Tax [1]

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Date: 2023-04-17  

Suzanne Geist is too extreme for Lincoln. As a state senator, Geist supported a radical consumption and sales tax plan that would triple the sales tax and hike it up to 20%! If you don’t believe me, I’ve got the receipts. Geist supported LB 133 and LR11CA in 2021. She supported LR264CA in 2022. Check it out.

Nebraska governor Jim Pillen blasted Geist’s plan in a Tweet on January 3, 2022: “The consumption tax would triple Nebraska’s sales tax. It would tax groceries, medicine and many other everyday essentials. It would hurt Nebraskans on fixed incomes, ag producers and job-creators. It would damage our economy and decimate our insurance industry. Bad idea.”

As you can see, even Jim Pillen believes that Geist’s plan is too radical. That’s remarkable. That’s like Charlie Sheen saying this party is too wild for me.

The non-partisan Open Sky Institute indicated that her plan “would enact a statewide consumption tax on all new goods and services at a rate of 10.64%. The fiscal note, however, estimates LB 133 would result in an annual revenue loss of nearly $4 billion by FY27, once cash funds and localities are reimbursed for their revenue losses.”

“The consumption tax proposal would require a rate of 22.1 percent to be revenue neutral,” OpenSky found. This rate is nearly three times greater than what we’re paying now.

Geist’s scheme doesn’t only include a massive sales tax increase, it also would eliminate income taxes, corporates taxes and the estate tax. It would fund a big tax cut for the rich and corporations with a massive tax increase on the poor and middle class. It would result in a massive upwards redistribution of wealth.

Open Sky executive director Renee Fry contended that “most of the financial benefits of any income tax cuts would flow to high earners, leaving most Nebraskans with a net tax increase. This is a tax cut for wealthy families that low- and middle- income families would pay for,” she said.

A massive sales tax increase would devastate Nebraska businesses. Nebraskans would travel out of state to make major purchases to save money. For example, Nebraska car dealers would be put out of business by this reckless plan. That would just be the tip of the iceberg.

Senator Megan Hunt opposed Geist’s bill during a 2021 debate in the legislature. Hunt castigated her fellow senators for not doing things to increase the state’s population and grow the tax base, which she has said would include things like increasing the minimum wage and enacting stronger protections for LGBT people.

“You are all in a hamster wheel, going around and around and around, trying to figure out the solution, trying literally any harebrained idea that comes your way, except for the ideas that’ll actually work,” Hunt said.

The reality is that Geist’s rich donors want a big tax cut funded by everyone else. That’s why the Peed family and Pete Ricketts are lavishly funding her campaign. It’s a corrupt pay for play scheme.

Geist isn’t on your side — she’s on their side. We simply can’t afford Suzanne Geist. She believes that rich people like herself don’t have enough money and that the poor and middle class have it too easy.

Leirion Gaylor Baird described Suzanne Geist’s priorities as “too extreme” for Lincoln. “It’s not a time to roll the dice and take a chance…Geist’s legislative record might “discourage young professionals from wanting to live and work in Lincoln.”

Vote for Leirion Gaylor Baird on May 2! Your job depends upon it!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/17/2164369/-Lincoln-Nebraska-Mayor-s-Race-Suzanne-Geist-Wants-To-Triple-The-Sales-Tax

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