Don't Increase Income Tax On The Few Who Pay Them, Increase The Number Of People Who Pay Taxes

Our current taxation system is an artifact of a time when people had jobs, which meant they had employers who could deduct income tax from their paychecks.

This system doesn’t work anymore. Many people no longer have employers. They have gigs. They have 1099s, not w-2s and w-4s. “Self-employment” is the new unemployment.

With no payroll person to deduct taxes from their pay, there are a lot of people who are essentially on the honor system. Many people are dishonorable.

I’m calling upon our legislature to collect more taxes by changing the way taxes are collected, not by raising taxes on the few honorable people who pay and from the shrinking numbers of people who have a job where a payroll person deducts taxes from their paychecks.

There are two ways the West Virginia legislature can collect more taxes. The first way is to increase taxes on the few who pay them. The second way is to collect taxes at point-of-purchase where everybody will have to pay the tax when they buy food, services, cars, clothing, gasoline or anything else.

Did you ever wonder how a drug dealer pays taxes? He probably doesn’t. It’s a cash business and even if he wanted to pay taxes he really can’t report income without incriminating himself.

Does it make you mad that drug dealers, prostitutes and others in cash businesses benefit from the things government provides but they don’t help pay for it like you do?

The legislature can right that injustice by dropping the income tax that only a few pay and imposing a sales or consumption tax that everybody pays.

West Virginia legislature, don’t increase taxes on the few who pay them, impose a tax that tax evaders can’t evade. Don’t increase the amount of tax each person pays, increase the number of people who pay tax.

The Higginbotham Plan To Make West Virginia Irresistible To Outside Investment And The Jobs That Come With It

West Virginia's intractable barrier to prosperity is our low inventory of STEM-educated college grads. Our governor and our legislators say so on radio and TV talk shows but they have not presented a plan to grow West Virginia's supply of STEM grads. 

Here's mine:

The Higginbotham Plan To Make West Virginia Irresistible To Outside Investment and The Jobs That Come With It

1.    Make the Promise Scholarship a STEM scholarship. Companies won’t come here for our English majors, political science majors and communications majors, but they will come here to gain access to our mathematicians, software engineers, chemists and other STEM grads if we produce them in large numbers.

2. Require Promise Scholarship recipients to sign a contract with West Virginia obligating them to stay in West Virginia for, say, 5 years after graduation. Too many of West Virginia’s college grads are leaving with their degrees and making some other state’s workforce magnetic to outside investment. If they give us five years, they’ll marry, have children, build houses, make friends and most will never leave. Maybe along the way they’ll invent things and, who knows, maybe some of them will start the next Apple or the next Google.

3.    Greatly expand the Promise Scholarship to fund tens of thousands of students’ college careers instead of the current 3,000 to 3,500.

4.    Double the per-student annual scholarship award from its current $4,750 to around $9,000 or $10,000.

5.    Buy the college debt of STEM grads who want to come to West Virginia and are willing to sign a contract requiring them to become part of West Virginia’s workforce for at least five years.

6.    Pay for the above with a severance tax, an excise tax or the proceeds from the state lottery or some combination of the aforementioned.

Tom Roten, Hoppy Kercheval, Danny Jones, Mitch Carmichael, Jim Justice, Tim Armstead, 

Join Dave Allen and I Live This Friday 11 November On WSCW Radio

You're invited to participate in the  "Dave Allen Live!" show this Friday, 11 November, at 10AM when I am Dave's guest on WSCW radio, 1410 AM and WSCWAM.com.

Dave says he wants to discuss election results and social issues. 

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Joseph Higginbotham has written hundreds of articles and columns for dozens of magazines, journals and newspapers and has appeared as a guest on such talk radio shows as Tri-State Talk with Mayor Bobby Nelson, The Mike Queen Show, The Jack Pattie Show, The Sue Wiley Show, The Eddie Cooper Show, The Tom Roten Morning Show and others.

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.



























































West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, Kate White, Pat Ward, Rob Byers, Ann Ali, Jim Workman, Erin Timony, The State Journal, Mandi Cardosi, Laura Bevan, Andi  Bernat, Heather Severt, Heather Perkins, Senge, Deming, Oshry, Seddon,  systems thinking, Rebecca Kimmons, Sarah Halstead, Church growth, game theory, systems thinking, 

Why A New Salary Overtime Threshold Law May Entitle You To A Pay Raise December 1, 2016

Effective December 1 of this year, the overtime salary threshold doubles from $23,660 to $47,476.

What does this mean to you? If you are an employer, it means that you may have to start tracking the time of salaried workers whose time you don’t currently track and it means that you will now have to decide whether to increase some employees’ salaries or pay them overtime when they work more than 40 hours per week. Effective December 1, employers will no longer be able to avoid paying overtime by simply giving employees “titles” like “assistant manager” then putting them on salary at around $24,000 and requiring them to work 60 or 70 hours per week. Starting December 1, American workers who work more than 40 hours per week will be entitled to get a salary increase to $47,476 or get overtime pay for any hours they work beyond 40 hours per week. 

If you are one of those salaried workers who works more than 40 hours per week but doesn’t make at least $47,476 your employer will now have to track your hours. 

For more information on the new overtime salary threshold, visit the Department of Labor website at DOL.gov.

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Joseph Higginbotham has written hundreds of articles and columns for dozens of magazines, journals and newspapers and has appeared as a guest on such talk radio shows as Tri-State Talk with Mayor Bobby Nelson, The Mike Queen Show, The Jack Pattie Show, The Sue Wiley Show, The Eddie Cooper Show, The Tom Roten Morning Show and others.

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.



























































West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, Kate White, Pat Ward, Rob Byers, Ann Ali, Jim Workman, Erin Timony, The State Journal, Mandi Cardosi, Laura Bevan, Andi  Bernat, Heather Severt, Heather Perkins, Senge, Deming, Oshry, Seddon,  systems thinking, Rebecca Kimmons, Sarah Halstead, Church growth, game theory, systems thinking, 

I'll Be Tom Roten's Radio Guest Tomorrow (Tuesday Nov 1)

I’ll be @TomRoten ’s radio guest tomorrow (Tuesday Nov 1) at 7:40AM on 800 WVHU Huntington.

Outside the Huntington area you can listen live at 800wvhu.iheart.com.

Joseph Higginbotham On Mike Queen's Radio Show Friday 28 October

I will be Mike Queen's radio guest this Friday 28 October on his WAJR radio show in Clarksburg. 

Time: 9AM. 

Topic - and these are Mike Queen's words - "The Intrigue Surrounding Charlotte Pritt's Candidacy." 

My Charleston area friends can stream the show live at WAJR.com. I'll  only be on for 15 minutes so don't tune in late. 

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Joseph Higginbotham has written hundreds of articles and columns for dozens of magazines, journals and newspapers. 

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.



























































West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, Kate White, Pat Ward, Rob Byers, Ann Ali, Jim Workman, Erin Timony, The State Journal, Mandi Cardosi, Laura Bevan, Andi  Bernat, Heather Severt, Heather Perkins, Senge, Deming, Oshry, Seddon,  systems thinking, Rebecca Kimmons, Sarah Halstead, 

Headhunter Myths - Part 2

Myth:  “Clients hire headhunters to find and deliver candidates they don’t already know.”

Truth: No, that’s why clients think they hire headhunters. The truth is that clients rarely hire strangers even if those strangers are found and delivered by a headhunter. In fact, after looking through my files and notes, I can’t find a single case where my client hired my best candidate if that candidate was a stranger and there was an acceptable non-stranger who would accept the offer. When I first started headhunting I was reluctant to present candidates who had some sort of a connection to my client. I thought my job was to find candidates with absolutely no ties to my client, candidates who were not in my client’s network at all. Now I have a name for candidates who aren’t already networked to my client: I call them candidates who can’t get the offer.

I’ve collected many a 5-figure fee for finding and delivering candidates my clients already had in their networks. The truth is, employers don’t simply hire people with the right skills. Employers hire people who know the same people they know. People don’t hire a stranger to fix their plumbing, their roof, their wiring unless an acceptable non-stranger is available. Similarly, employers will take a pass on the A+ stranger if there’s a B non-stranger available.

Incidentally, systems thinkers who are seeking a new job can backward-engineer this fact to network their way to a new job.  Maybe I’ll explain this in a future post.