Maybe experience inspires innovation.
Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld (R) moved from the Bay State to New York in 2000. He is now running for governor of New York. If he’s successful, he will be only the second person in U.S. history to serve as governor of two states (Sam Houston was the other, Tennessee and Texas).
Now, the first thing you need to know about New York is that the state’s Medicaid program is completely out of control. Even the New York Times is complaining about all the waste, fraud and abuse in the system, which has been estimated to be around 40 percent of the program..
So along comes candidate Weld with a new proposal: Cut state Medicaid funds in order to eliminate state income taxes for those who make less than $75,000 a year.
Ooo! We like this man!
Tax cut opponents always want to know how tax cuts are going to be paid for, as if letting people keep more of what’s rightfully theirs actually has a “cost.”
Well, Weld’s proposal has that answer.
By using those savings to cut state income taxes for lower- and middle-income workers, Weld addresses the constant liberal complaint that lower-income workers don’t get their fair share of tax cuts.
In explaining his actions Weld said: “As one who thinks there's no such thing as government money, there’s only taxpayers' money, I don’t generally start out when analyzing a tax cut saying, ‘How am I possibly going to pay for this?’” He added, “That’s looking at it from the point of view of the government, as though the government ineluctably owns that money.”
One of Weld’s opponents says that Medicaid cuts won’t be enough to offset the tax cuts, and the response from Weld’s campaign was to propose holding state spending to last year’s revenues.
Can we bottle these ideas? And sell them to, say, New Jersey?
At a time when Weld’s successor in Massachusetts, Gov. Mitt Romney (R), is proposing a costly and invasive new health insurance plan, it’s nice to know that someone in the Northeast is proposing new and innovative ways to cut taxes and reduce the size of government.