How can it be constitutional for some persons, based on who their employer was to be exempt from income taxes during retirement, but other retired persons still have to pay income tax.
Why am I not surprised? IMO it is well past time for a complete revamping of the Gov't pension schemes at all levels of Gov't, most notably those in place for Congress. What a crock.
How convenient! Work on the governments tit your whole life, then protect yourself from having to pay income tax on your pension. But God forbid you exempt private sector employee pensions!
this is crap. absolute crap.
This sure underscores who government serves.
As a USG retiree living in Virgnia, I hope it passes. It is a win-win solution. Virginia keeps more retirees in state and the individual retains more of their own money, which can be spent on the local economy. In addition to the states above, there are others, i.e., Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming, that don't have state income taxes. Other states provide partial breaks for government retirees.
Twenty-seven states with an income tax exempt Social Security benefits from taxation. The 27 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia. Wisconsin will also fully exempt Social Security benefits from taxation beginning in tax year 2008.
The article failes to list that state with no income. So while Hawaii sounds like a nice place to retire on this article Washington, Texas, Forida, New Hampshire, Nevada and Wyoming are nice places to live and work, income-tax-free.
Why not just make public "servants" royalty? We could address them as "your lordship", they can rent us land to live on. You know, just like the good old days ...
Certain way to promote a revolution.
Public employees earn as much or more than private industry.
They can opt out of Social Security and most if not all can retire early at 80% of their final salary.
What reasoning, other than "All animals are equal; but some animals are more equal than others" can be the justification for this special privilege?
In essence, this gives them twice the usual retirement that non-public employees enjoy.
How does exempting a large (and no longer productive) chunk of the populace from taxation "sustain the commonwealth's economy?"
Hmmm?
Doesn't Florida exempt retirement wages also ??
Alabama has exempted Military and government Retirement from taxation for years. :-)