LETTERS

Skeffington tax would solve a lot

Posted 4/28/15

To the Editor:

As the soon to be former chairman of the Libertarian Party of Rhode Island, whose current term in office is officially ending in May, I have decided to propose what many other …

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LETTERS

Skeffington tax would solve a lot

Posted

To the Editor:

As the soon to be former chairman of the Libertarian Party of Rhode Island, whose current term in office is officially ending in May, I have decided to propose what many other libertarians will view as being a total heresy on my part.  Please do note that this is entirely my own personal proposal.  It specifically is not a Libertarian Party proposal, and it has already been privately condemned by other LPRI officers with whom I have privately discussed it. More specifically, I have decided to propose an entirely new Rhode Island state tax.  It is a proposed new tax that I personally believe to be desperately needed.  I personally have been very seriously thinking about proposing this new tax for several weeks.

In the spirit of Governor Raimondo’s recently proposed “Taylor Swift Tax,” I have decided to name my proposed new Rhode Island tax the “James Skeffington Tax.”

What I would like to propose is a new 300 percent (Yes, three hundred percent) tax upon all gross profits earned in part, or whole via any specially made crony capitalist insider deal with any state, municipal, or quasi-public agency. For purposes of this tax I would define a “crony capitalist” deal as being any tax, land, or other financial deal which is not, or was not made equally available to all other individuals, or corporations, preferably via either a public auction, or competitive bidding.  I would also broadly define a “quasi-public agency” as being any corporation, or organization which either directly, or indirectly gets a majority of its funding from government sources.

In other words, if you had to engage in any kind of negotiations, in order to get your government deal, it most likely would qualify you for this proposed new James Skeffington tax on crony capitalism.

Do note that my proposal has the extra advantage of being retroactively applicable to any residual income arising from crony capitalist special deals that were made years ago.  It is a tax that can be passed a few years from now, and still apply.  There is no time limit as to when this tax might ever be passed.

While my proposed new tax is only likely to ever recoup a small fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars, which James Skeffington, and other crony capitalist insiders have already scammed from our hardworking Rhode Island taxpayers, it hopefully will help to discourage others from engaging in similar crony capitalist frauds going forward.

I thus do publicly urge that others please join with me in supporting this proposed new James Skeffington tax on crony capitalism.  All available support will be greatly appreciated!

Michael J. Rollins,

Chairman

Libertarian Party

of Rhode Island

North Providence

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  • JohnStark

    Mr. Rollins,

    I appreciate your ire when it comes to crony capitalism, a process in which RI is truly a national leader. I also appreciate you tongue-in-cheek approach to all this. On a serious note, however, the very last thing RI needs is another tax. Of any sort. In any form. The Libertarian Party, of which I am a long-time admirer, would best use their considerable talents in pointing out a) The utter insanity of RI's existing tax structure, and b) Asking the question: What specific government services to Rhode Islanders receive as a function of paying state income and sales taxes that residents of New Hampshire do NOT receive as a function of paying neither a sales nor income tax?

    Wednesday, April 29, 2015 Report this