tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post6304872240660048008..comments2020-04-11T03:30:02.282-05:00Gary R. Welshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15185079937305083438noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-42423166916100191612009-02-22T13:28:00.000-05:002009-02-22T13:28:00.000-05:00Thunder, for every wealthy lawyer in town, I can point to about 3 that are just barely scratching by. So they more than offset each other.Paul K. Ogdenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16137003328850866711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-85559121744914223582009-02-21T16:53:00.000-05:002009-02-21T16:53:00.000-05:00AI, the income-distribution numbers could be a bit skewed by all the high-priced lawyers and doctors (MD and PhD) who work in Indianapolis. This is, after all, the state's center of finance, insurance, real estate, medicine, and pharmaceutical research. But many of those folks live outside the county and don't pay our 1.65% income tax. (See below)<BR/><BR/>Someone has to empty trash cans, wash sheets and mop floors, and they don't make $100K a year. More like $20K. But they spend every penny they make locally on rent, cars, groceries and clothes. So a higher percentage of those wages get recycled immediately in the local economy than of yours and mine.<BR/><BR/>And finally...the argument about taxing commuters isn't "silly". High-income commuters rely on streets, sewers, police, and fire protection that you and I pay local property and income taxes to build up and maintain. Their own local taxes go to plow out their cul-de-sacs when it snows. Our local taxes go to dig out the arteries they use to get to work, while we dig ourselves out of side streets. They don't call Carmel or Fishers cops and firefighters if they have an accident at 38th and Fall Creek or Kessler and Keystone...they call ours.thundermutthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17493735351984131731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-52644598374674811052009-02-21T16:06:00.000-05:002009-02-21T16:06:00.000-05:00According to those statistics, citizen kane, hospitality workers represent 7.3% of the workforce but only a little over 2% of the wages earned by the county's workforce.Gary R. Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15185079937305083438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-77621538526872354072009-02-21T15:57:00.000-05:002009-02-21T15:57:00.000-05:00The hospitality industry is full of workers without health insurance. When they have serious health problems, they wind up at Wishard and we pick up the tab. Many of these businesses fail to properly report and pay taxes on the tip earnings of their employees, which represents most of their pay in many cases.Gary R. Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15185079937305083438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-65472991599830546402009-02-21T15:22:00.000-05:002009-02-21T15:22:00.000-05:00Now look at the site below to see the small percentage of total wages (average wages also) generated by all of this government largess, noting that the accommodation, food, arts, entertainment, recreation and retail sales categories are obviously not just generated from tourism and conventions.<BR/><BR/>Note the large discrepancies between percentage of jobs in the county and percentage of earnings for these sectors, obviously resulting in the fairly low to obscenely low wages. In this type of Ponzi scheme, the taxpayers are the losers, even before it collapses. <BR/><BR/>http://www.stats.indiana.edu/profiles/pr18097.htmlCitizen Kanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17083803017411939029noreply@blogger.com