by Kristina Rasmussen

State Sen. Mike Noland was completely wrong when he suggested at a recent campaign stop that a progressive income tax is “morally right.”

For government to take more of a dollar just because another dollar is earned is unfair, predatory and punitive.

It’s time we understand what is really going on here.

Not content with the 67 percent income tax increase that passed in 2011, teacher unions and their allies are proposing to cement the "temporary" 5 percent income tax in place and then raise the rates even higher as income goes up.

It’s being sold as a tax hike on the “rich” – but that’s a falsehood unless you consider teachers “rich.” Under a progressive tax grab plan being circulated by a liberal policy group funded by teacher unions, two married U-46 teachers making the average district salary of $72,198 would make more than enough to put them into a higher 7.5 percent tax bracket. That's twice the rate they'd be scheduled to pay when the 2011 tax hike partially sunsets in 2015. In fact, with a small raise this same teaching couple would make enough to land in the 8.5 percent bracket – almost triple the rate from 2010!

It makes you wonder why teacher unions would fund a coordinated campaign advocating for higher taxes on teachers. Then you realize that the resulting massive wealth transfer will end up in their pockets as more state funding translates into higher salaries.

That’s not moral. It’s greedy.