Withholding the truth

Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and we're stuck holding the bill:

Effective Sunday, expect less of a paycheck.

The amount of income tax withheld from your check is going to climb by 10 percent.

In the scheme of things, it's not a big hit, state officials and accountants said. But don't tell that to people who feel it's just another form of taxation to make up for an inept state Legislature.

No amount of taxation could make up for the spendthrift habits of our legislature. Also, it's not "making up" for squat: taxation is not the balancing force to a group of parasitic layabouts, it's symptomatic of their presence. There is no way to gently coerce someone out of their wealth.

"There's some perception that I've heard that this is a 10 percent tax increase ... that's absoslutely not the case," Palmer said. "This will, in no way shape or form, change anybody's tax liability. You owe what you owe."

And employees can always go to their payroll department and ask to withold less, officials said.

Whether it is essentially a tax or not was perhaps not even the greatest concern, the accountant Theisen and others said.

It's a concern about the potential for the state to again face the same woes it endured this year as it teetered on fiscal collapse.

"It's a fix to a problem that's not going to be fixed," Theisen said.

Taxpayers will get their refunds, but they might get IOUs before that, he said.

So, borrowing without permission, with no intention of repayment. Furthermore, what's to prevent the legislature from appropriating one's paycheck two years in advance? Three? Ten? And to what percentage? What are the absolute limits of the appetite of the State? Does anyone really expect them to make good on the IOU scheme?

If anyone required confirmation that one's paycheck is merely what the State allows one to keep after "wetting its beak", this is it.