“Don’t tax you, don’t tax me, tax that man behind the tree.” The late Sen. Russell B. Long, (D, LA) liked to quote that old saying often. We have run across a situation that fits that saying precisely.

What triggered our thinking was a letter to the editor in last Monday’s The (Baton Rouge) Advocate from retired State Budget Director Stephen Winham.

Winham says it “was just crazy” to repeal the Stelly Tax. He says that “out-of-control” spending is far from the only reason Louisiana needs more revenue. And he ends up asking “Are we too stupid to understand these things, or is it just more fun to adopt an ‘I pay too much in taxes already, and Louisiana government already wastes that’ attitude?

We suggest he is correct and that we should enact more taxes. And we suggest that the first place to start is for the State of Louisiana to tax the income of retired state and federal employees.

At present, retirement income for almost all government employees is not taxed by the state.

See the list here.

State employees, teachers, clerks of court, federal employees – all get a free ride. We suggest that it is the epitome of audacity to complain that everyone else isn’t paying their way when your own retirement income isn’t taxed.

But that’s always the Do-Gooder way. They always want the Do-Gooding done with OPM – Other People’s Money.

Walter Abbott is the publisher of Lincoln Parish News Online.