Just Because It's Your Money, Doesn't Mean We Have to Let You Have It

An Associated Press story, reported in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, states that Kansas has suspended income tax refunds, among other accounting legerdemain, due to inability to pay its bills. (California is also doing the same.)

Hmmm....seems just a little bit annoying. Having a monopoly on legalized violence certainly allows the State to take action that would, literally, have "ordinary" citizens thrown into jail. (See how much lenience the IRS grants you when you claim during an audit that you were not paying your taxes because those funds were needed elsewhere.) There are always two sets of rules.

Now is as fine a time as any to share the constitutional lawyer (and anarchist) Lysander Spooner's analysis of how the State treats ordinary citizens:

"The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: 'Your money, or your life.' And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat.

The government does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the roadside, and, holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the less a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful.

The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit. He does not pretend to be anything but a robber. He has not acquired impudence enough to profess to be merely a 'protector,' and that he takes men's money against their will, merely to enable him to 'protect' those infatuated travellers, who feel perfectly able to protect themselves, or do not appreciate his peculiar system of protection. He is too sensible a man to make such professions as these.

Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following you on the road, against your will; assuming to be your rightful 'sovereign,' on account of the 'protection' he affords you. He does not keep 'protecting' you, by commanding you to bow down and serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that; by robbing you of more money as often as he finds it for his interest or pleasure to do so; and by branding you as a rebel, a traitor, and an enemy to your country, and shooting you down without mercy, if you dispute his authority, or resist his demands. He is too much of a gentleman to be guilty of such impostures, and insults, and villanies as these. In short, he does not, in addition to robbing you, attempt to make you either his dupe or his slave." [Lysander Spooner, The Constitution of No Authority, 1870]

The Republican legislature is refusing various requests by Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius to borrow money, in an attempt to have the governor sign a bill to enact approximately $150 million in spending cuts.

State and local governments fall victim to the vicissitudes of the economy just as much as people, corporations, and other organizations: when times are flush, spending increases. However, unlike people and firms, governments tend to increase spending and benefits largely for permanent accounts. This spending/benefits expansion is such that when the economy eventually slows down, governments must decide between shrinking the enhanced benefits, raising taxes, or securing funding in another fashion. It should come as no surprise that local and state governments lean towards the latter choice, so as not to have to make hard decisions.

Does it ever occur to the government to put aside the money for future lean times, or -- aghast! -- to actually lower their constituents' tax burdens? Never. The instinct to spend money is hard-wired.