FYI
My company is looking for experienced people in West Melbourne FL :
Cabinet Makers / Countertop Fabricators $15.00/hr to start Field Superintendent $30-$50K / year
Please forward info to those who are looking to relocate due to Katrina as well.
Thanks, Rich
snipped-for-privacy@cfl.rr.com remove the hate spam part
Please repost after you correct the typos in the dollar figures.
CW, just out of curiosity, what would you consider competitive wages for these positions?
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+$20.00 to $27.00 around here. It varies, of course, depending on geographic area but I don't see Melbourne Florida as a depressed economy.
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Seems like most wages are depressed in Florida. One of my co-workers just moved to FLA a few months ago and took a$15,000 pay cut to do the same job. If you look at one of the job sites like monster.com you'll wonder why anyone would go there to work. Low pay aside, I wonder why anyone would go there.
"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote
Apparently many folks love the adventure of regular hurricanes to spice up their lives.
Depends upon how much one dislikes winter.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
No *income* taxes at any rate. There are still property and sales taxes. That is certainly a big draw. I know that going from Texas to Arizona, the addition of having to account for income tax was a major consideration.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
I like winter more than palmetto bugs and H O T muggy summers.
Washington has no income tax either, but sales tax is 8.somehing - they just raised it again and I can't remember the fraction.
And if you're self-employed there's something called the "business and occupation" tax. It's on gross - you can lose money and still owe taxes.
Here in AZ (Tucson, Pima County), we pay right around 8.1%. Plus income tax, plus property taxes (property taxes aren't quite as high as Texas -- and definitely not as high as some of the folks in the Houston area have reported paying.
I don't have any direct knowledge of the equivalent here in AZ, so I can't comment.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
I don't think there's very many places that don't have property taxes. Luckily, WA has a senior citizens exemption, all or part depending on the value of the property. Ours is low enough on the scale that we pay nothing.
I think the B&O tax is pretty unique, although I'm sure there are a few other places with the equivalent. I've heard it was supposed to be a sneaky income tax that most voters wouldn't have to pay, just the "rich businessman" and those dang independent self-employed. The rate varies by business/occupation with services paying the highest rates. Now that I'm retired of course we don't have to pay that either.
And we don't have enough income to require filing federal tax returns, so the only non-hidden tax we pay is the sales tax. And between the exemption for food, online purchases, and the occasional foray to Idaho (10 miles away) which has a lower sales tax, we don't get hit that bad there either.
BTW, WA is getting really nasty about folks (not us) who go to Idaho to buy cigarettes. Random stops at the border. And if you bought them at an Indian reservation, you're really in trouble.
Business receipts tax. Gross business income tax. It's sneaky, it's unfair, but it's also reasonably common.
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Really? ... and what reason do they give for restraining free citizens from trading where, how, and with whom they choose?
I could see if the people doing so were doing this for re-sale; the rationale for legal restriction there could possibly be made; but if these are simply citizens who have found that driving to another state or an Indian reservation provides the best value for their money, then it seems state law has overstepped its bounds.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
You can trade all you want as long as you pay the state taxes. In most states you can cross the border to buy cigs or booze, but you have to pay the state tax on them when you return. Same with crossing the border to Mexico or Canada (or internationals, for that matter) you are only allowed a small amount to cross over with. When I go to Canada, I always stop at the duty free shop on the way back.
Same when buying mail order goods. You are obligated to pay a use tax to your state. We have a line item on our income tax form to declare your purchases. Commercial truckers get into fuel taxes by state also.
Understand the rationale for entering the US -- there you are paying US import fees. However, in the other case, this seems like something that the US Constitution was exactly designed to prevent. i.e, states cannot tax goods entering their states.
But the commercial truckers only pay fuel taxes on the fuel they buy in the state in which they buy it, right? They don't get taxed according to the amount of fuel they have in their tanks when they enter the state? In the case in question, unlike the mail order goods issue (which, IMO is also fairly questionable regarding constitutionality and regulating and taxing interstate commerce), the citizen who has bought those goods in another state has paid the taxes associated with those goods in the state in which he bought them. To be further taxed is to negate one of the primary driving forces for why the US constitution was set up in the first place! Under the confederation of states, various states were taxing goods being traded between states and setting up tariffs and other duties on those goods. The only difference here is that it is currently a politically incorrect substance (tobacco) being interdicted, but the principles should remain the same.
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I think it's not only the state taxes, but that the reservations (IIRC) don't pay federal taxes either. And they're not supposed to sell to anyone not a tribal member.
But in principle, I agree with you. Nothing, however, will stop a government at any level in its relentless pursuit of revenue.
I know you (and Dave) will be surprised at that comment from someone you consider a liberal :-). Maybe next time I say I'm just a cynic you'll remember this.
FALSE TO FACT. The states cannot do engage in acts that interfere with interstate commerce. If 'imported' goods are treated the same as in-state manufactured goods -- i.e. where both are taxed equally -- this is *NOT* a constitutional violation. Not my opinion, but that of the U.S. Supreme Court. -- and they've held that opinion for a long time. Occasionally somebody comes with a new means of challenging it, and gets slapped down yet again. The last time was in the last Sup. Ct. session, Regarding a Michigan tax on truckers.
Wrong again -- They pay fuel taxes based on the number of _miles_ they drive in each state, regardless of where the fuel was bought.
The supreme court has said otherwise, *repeatedly*, and we all know whose opinion counts for more, when it is 'yours' vs 'theirs'.
Maybe yes, maybe *NOT*.
You don't know what you don't know.
The principles being enforced *are* the same. To wit: Try buying an automobile from an out-of-state dealer, or direct from the factory.
You *will* be billed by your state of residence for the exact equivalent of the sales tax on the price of that purchase, had it been made 'in state'.
Note: as an 'out of state purchaser' with delivery out-of-state, you are *not* liable for 'sales tax' in the jurisdiction where the sale took place.
Tobacco, and alcohol _are_ however, treated as 'special cases'. Most states require that you have a _license_ to 'import' those products into their state. They are *not* the only items, by any means, that get such treatment -- and it is _not_ because they are "politically incorrect' substances -- raw dairy products, fireworks, pressurized gasses, demolition explosives, etc. are among other items treated similarly.
Tobacco specifically, has taxes assessed on it at the manufacturing and/or wholesale/distribution level -- the earliest point in the 'chain' (of product distribution) that is in the state where the eventual retail sale of the product occurs. Those who import the product into the state are responsible for remitting those taxes to the state government; as are those who manufacture the product for eventual in-state sale.
Where taxes are disparate on opposite sides of a state border, a purchaser in the 'low tax' state, has *not* paid the required taxes assessed by the 'high tax' state.
The law _does_ make allowance for "personal use" of such imported goods
*without* having to pay additional 'high tax' state taxes on those goods. *HOWEVER*, the law _also_ defines limits -- fairly restrictive ones -- on how large a quantity is considered eligible for 'personal use'. Beyond that quantity, you are "presumptively" importing for the use of others -- and are engaged in [1] 'bootlegging', [2] failure to have a business license for that kind of business venture, [3] failure to remit the relevant taxes to the _destination_state (if you were stupid enough to pay state taxes to the purchasing state, when you were _in_legal_ _fact_, *exempt* from those taxes --- well, that stupidity on your part is not the destination state's problem :), [4] several other violations of state (and possibly federal) law.
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