Cuomo Plans to Sue U.S. Government Over State Tax Break Change

[Igel]

14. We don't have equal taxation.

We argue against equal taxation on moral grounds.

A flat tax is equal taxation. If you look at the lowest group of households, their effective income tax rate is negative and their nominal rate was 0%. Look at the highest group, their effective rate is over 20% and their nominal top rate was around 39%. "Penalizing one group while giving others a free pass is not a method of equal taxation." I guess it's a question of whether you think of the tax rates as "penalizing" or not. A lot of people like punishing the rich with high taxes, though, so for them it's clearly a penalty.

That's just federal income tax. Factor in payroll tax and things change a bit. Factor in state and property tax and things change again. The non-equality of tax rates is federal, it's state, it's local.

"Without apportionment" seems to have a pretty clear definition. State dollar amounts, by population. It would require that different states have different federal income tax rates in order to meet their revenue requirements. Think of it as tax farming or the way that the Romans apportioned taxes 1 CE +/- 150 years.