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News from the Montana Libertarian Party
P.O. Box 4803 Missoula MT 59806 -
Contact Mike Fellows (406) 721-9020
For Immediate Release:
April 15, 2002
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Martz still focused on "Picking Other People's Pockets" say
Libertarians on the "New Martz Tax Plan" announced today.
Missoula - - MT -
Libertarians are opposing a new tax plan by Governor Martz,because it doesn't limit or cut government
spending, but encourages more spending, says Montana Libertarian Party Chair Mike Fellows. "Republicans
like to talk about limiting government, but this proposal does nothing about reducing the size of Montana's
State government", It's simply business as usual with the government picking other people's pockets to
pay for programs says Fellows.
Cutting income taxes 10-percent is a good idea, but libertarians would like to see a larger cut or
elimination of the income tax. Libertarians also oppose local option taxes and tourist taxes, "a tax
is a tax" says Fellows and those proposals were debated in the 2001 legislature and they were defeated.
"Why should other people fund our programs" says Fellows. That seemed to be an on-going theme in 2001,
how can we pick other people's pockets other then Montana citizens to add new revenue to the state budget?
According to the Tax Foundation, Montana taxpayers will work until April 18 this year to pay their tax
burden. That means 108 days working to pay for Montana's budget, with a tax burden as a percentage of
income at 29.8-percent. Montana's tax burden per capita was $7,187 thousand dollars with the per capita
income of $24,083 thousand dollars.
Libertarians would encourage Governor Martz to look at cutting the budget 10- percent, then enacting
new taxes. Libertarians want a smaller limited government, with lower taxes that would put more money
into people's pockets, instead of always picking other people's pockets.