California is looking at charging a sales tax on veterinary services. There are other states that have this tax (Hawaii, New Mexico, and South Dakota).I gotta tell you I'm torn.
The argument against is that people won't take their pet to vet services. I just don't think that is a valid argument. Let's say the vet visit is $100. If you put sales tax against that, then the visit would be $108.25.
I have to ask myself, would $8.25 cents stop someone from taking a dog to the vet? Probably not, it would be the $100 that would do it.
So isn't the answer that like everything, having a pet is a responsibility. Humans need to make sure they have the $$ to keep the pet happy and healthy (probably not happening in my lifetime - but I can dream).
Another answer is what we have today, generous people putting together funds that assist individuals who have pets to get them check out, and spayed.
However, if the California government is looking for ways to increase revenues, then they should look broader than one group (pet owners). I heard that "movie tickets" are not taxed. Now really, I'm not sure how many of us actually go to the movies anymore, but for goodness sake, why aren't movie tickets taxed? Could it be that there are huge lobbyists supporting this notion of no tax on movie tickets.
I'm not for Taxes, believe me. I'm actually one of those flat tax types who would like to see all hidden deductions go away and if you make $100, $13 goes to the better good (after the first $40,000). But in the mean time, I don't think the government is the "bad guy" for trying to figure out ways to pay for state costs.
I do however think it is criminal that they increase taxes in one area and not in others due to lobbying.
I'm not sure how I'm going on this one, but here is the link to the petition to tell the California Government that you don't want them to tax pet vet services: http://www.petpac.net/action/petitions/stop_the_pet_owner_tax
Go for it.
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