Tax Day Brawl: New Payroll Tax In Kentucky City Brings Fury (VIDEO)

Some may scoff that the anti-tax tea party movement is a put-on by establishment conservatives. But one thing's for sure: people really do hate taxes, and mid-April is prime tax hatin' season.

Workers in Raceland, Kentucky are so mad over a proposed one-percent payroll tax that a railroad union official almost threw down with council member Tuesday night, according to the local TV station. Workers packed a council meeting and afterward WSAZ caught part of a near-brawl on tape.

WSAZ reports that the council actually halved the proposed tax. The brawl portion of the video may be brief, but it shows that half a tax is still worse than none at all for some folks. A lot worse.

WATCH:

Hat tip: WSAZ

Comments

[ichan]

01:34 PM on 04/20/2009

1%?

[Bluesue]

01:44 PM on 04/19/2009

How would you like to pay a tax called the Occupation Privilege Tax?

I live in Pennsylvania and I think every municipality levies that tax. It's a tax on the privilege of working in the jurisdiction. All persons employed in the jurisdiction levying this tax must pay, regardless of whether they are legal residents of the jurisdiction.

It was finally renamed in 2004 to the Emergency & Municipal Services Tax - not quite as offensive. It was $10 a year but could have increased since I last paid it.

[Pleneras]

07:02 PM on 04/19/2009

Once a year Occupation tax is now 30 dollars and the School tax is 25. They tax you up and down in PA.

[harpen1]

10:25 AM on 04/19/2009

You don't have the full story on this issue, there appears to be a question on why the increase is needed.
Apparently the city of Raceland has mismanaged money and there may be some corruption involved here as well. People are not against taxes if they know what the taxes are needed for, in this case they do not know what the increase is for, they do know that there is some unseemly activities that have taken palce.

[AngelaQuattrano]

03:20 PM on 04/19/2009

The problem is, if mismanagement happened in the recent past, the budget still needs to be balanced. Not wanting to pay for bad management of the past is unfortunately not going to change the current state of the budget.

[bascombe]

01:36 AM on 04/19/2009

a reduction in an increase still leaves an increase. they really think people are stupid.

[Pleneras]

07:10 PM on 04/19/2009

What's silly is assume your taxes will never go up but expect your wages to increase. If it's going to happen 1% is better than 2%. Not realizing that is stupid.

[solarian]

07:31 PM on 04/18/2009

the south such a great place to live

[Pleneras]

05:25 PM on 04/18/2009

Pay your taxes you unpatriotic republican hypocrites. It was 2% under Bush and now that it's 1% by your council you whine? Get these people Math For Dummies asap.

[neil1017]

06:53 PM on 04/18/2009

that teacher did not realize that her wages were being paid for from taxes already collected. Property, State and federal taxes all go into paying her wages and benefits.

[Pleneras]

07:04 PM on 04/19/2009

Now that is a shame indeed.

[topachic25]

12:48 AM on 04/20/2009

How do you logically deduce that NOT paying taxes is unpatriotic? I would be quite interested in hearing your arguments on this matter.

[yellowdogminnesotan]

12:46 AM on 04/18/2009

Alright let the town fold up. Don't want to pay taxes, don't get what taxes pay for then. Can't keep living on the state and federal credit card folks, China's gonna cut us off. Let the hillbillys cry when their house burns down because there where no fire fighters to put the blaze out.

[Pleneras]

05:35 PM on 04/18/2009

lol.... Send them a rain dance instruction booklet.... if they can read. Surely math is not their forte.

[harriettubman]

12:37 AM on 04/18/2009

People all over this country are sick of taxes, taxes and more taxes. Home values decrease yet property taxes are still going up! Bad management and career politicians.

[KarateKid]

10:38 AM on 04/18/2009

I used to live in Dennis Hastert's district, in northern Illinois, a red county. My property taxes went up from $5600 in 2000 to $8900 in 2008. So much for tax and spend Republicans.......

[1differentdrummer]

11:48 AM on 04/18/2009

So we should all thrash around wildly and strike out at anything government? Riiiight. Good thinking there. Shows real understanding of the situation. Did you yell when we invaded and occupied Iraq? How about when Bush kept the Iraq occupation off the budget? Did you cheer when the top 1-2% of the wealthy got a tax cut during that occupation? I'm sure you cheered when our troops went in there under-manned, under-equipped, under-supplied, with no real strategy, without a clear mission and vulnerable, right? Did you protest loudly when the Pentagon and Bush let Osama get away? Well, think about those when you are bellyaching now. Unless you were standing up then, keep out of my face now, please. You seem selectively offended.

[rhubardpi]

12:02 AM on 04/18/2009

The Big Bad IRS let's many well-to-do people off the hook, but you folks ain't gonna know that cuz ya don't work there, and many who work at the IRS don't know this cuz they mostly only the cases they work on. In 1997 I spent 1 year reviewing closed IRS Collection cases from across the nation. What I saw compelled me to write a memo to the National IRS office entitled, Fraud (Constructive), Waste, and Mismanagement at the IRS". I received no response from anyone. I told former IRS Commissioner Charles Rosotti to his face we were not collecting, from people who owed huge debts, even though the case file evidence clearly showed they could pay most or all of the debt. Rosotti said he did not believe it was happening. I invited him to come to my desk asw I had copies of the casefiles in question. It was not legal for me to still have these files. Rosotti's response?? He turned and walked away. Kinda wonder if that does not make him guilty of aiding and abetting non-payment of taxes. You know who I am Rosotti, so sue me if ya don't like it. I still have the case files. I wrote to Pres Obama about it on 1-28-09, still have heard nothing. I retired after 28 years in the IRS Collection Division.

[DocJerome]

06:59 PM on 04/18/2009

Wow. You need to go before Congress and on C-SPAN. Oh, I know, write the Maddow Show, she has the ear of all that matters.

[schatsie]

09:56 AM on 04/19/2009

I believe you entirely after reading the TPM post about the 400 richest people in this country and the fact that of the less than 5% audited, 66% owed over $200 grand for the year in question.

Between not auditing, not collecting, SECRET IRS letters (see Free Lunch) and offshoring, we have a new ARISTOCRACY that buys it's way out of paying taxes... That is the True Sign of a Oligarchy.

[plooger]

12:33 PM on 04/17/2009

Yes, this shows distaste for taxes... but would this man have been as violent without all the incitement on Fox News and Right Wing hate radio?

[jamie461]

04:39 PM on 04/17/2009

No one loves taxes. But they certainly want the services that the government provides with the money. And I agree -- there is an enormous amount of incitement going on in some areas of the media. It's going to spill over into ugly incidents like this. Shame on them.

[Pleneras]

07:23 PM on 04/19/2009

That's because the Republicans and their banker friends have promoted the idea that taxes are not to be spent on improving the country or caring for the poor and disabled. Those areas are suppose to be taken care of by charites and donations and the wealthy wives of the bankers in exchange for write-offs. I tried writing off once and unless I donated more several thousand I wouldn't get the benefits the rich wives received. Taxes belong to the people and therefore should be invested towards the people and the security of this nation, not to be wasted on wars and Cheney's private investments.

[BlueKy]

09:37 AM on 04/17/2009

I have the misfortune of living next to this community. I can't pretend to be unbiased. Raceland High School is and always will be the cross-town rival (Or as my H.S. principal once put it "the arch-nemesis" of the high school I graduated from. But in reality Raceland is a very...distasteful place. I will never forget the football game my senior year. We had a star player who was African-American and they had created many signs either depicting him being lynched or proclaiming that "The Monkey should hang!" So, yes, foolish behavior from those people. Nothing new.

[MochasMom]

05:03 PM on 04/17/2009

^ That's horrible :(

[DocJerome]

07:00 PM on 04/18/2009

So we know that racism and idiocy go hand and hand.

[AdamX]

09:18 AM on 04/17/2009

The right wing loves taxes!

[toddag]

12:29 PM on 04/17/2009

Gives them something to get fired up about.

[slipthalo]

07:54 PM on 04/17/2009

for the middle class

[steelwheels]

09:08 AM on 04/17/2009

I think peoplee have gotten off point here. The gist of the video was pertaining to the fact that the city council put in place a 2% payroll tax earlier this year. Then, in an effort to mitigate that RAISE in taxes, they tried to pass themselves off as the party thats REDUCING taxes by halving a payroll tax on basiclly the only two groups of working people in town, the school district and a short line railroad. That being said the BEEF, was, in my humble opinion, the fact that the city council was effectivelly creating a NEW tax, WITHOUT telling the people being taxed what the new tax was for. Also there were NO stipulations that the new tax would not be raised again and again and again without input from the community.

[pbarba1969]

08:55 AM on 04/17/2009

I get a kick to hear people complaining about 1percent. One percent . BUt I'll bet they'll be up and arms too, when they have to cut services.

Can't have it both way folks:)

[magic3400]

03:04 AM on 04/17/2009

1%, they're fighting over 1 penny per dollar to save their town. One penny folks.

If that is not selfish, what is?

I just want to know how many supported the war in Iraq...that bill is going to be over 1 Trillion dollars (not that's a lot o pennies), but they will leave that bill for someone else to pay!!!

[cbeenthere]

11:46 AM on 04/17/2009

I know I don't think people stop to think clearly about it, but still it seems like the wrong time for the state to do that. Why rile your citizens at a time like this. How much money is KY getting from the Feds? I would not know that either.

[PrimeTyme]

12:10 PM on 04/17/2009

fighting over 1% tax that is aimed at keeping the city running is silly

people are killing me with this whole, "its my money! keep your hands off it government!"

that money is designed to help the same fools who oppose it.. public schools, police officers, roads, parks & rec, medical research...