Some tough choices for fixing economy

I am not an economist, but as a fairly successful businessperson I have had to make tough choices to achieve fiscal stability. Here are my humble suggestions:

Ÿ Install a 1 percent national sales tax that will be repealed in 5 years regardless of the state of the union.

Ÿ Implement a 1 percent tariff on all imports.

Ÿ Increase the long-term capital-gains rate from 15 percent to 20 percent. I have sold businesses at both levels and while I prefer 15 percent, at the time 20 percent seemed reasonable.

Ÿ Reduce all government paychecks for workers and retirees by 3 percent across the board and freeze increases for 3 years.

Ÿ Retroactively increase the retirement age and reduce all benefits for all public workers to reflect the national average.

Ÿ Readjust the salary/wages of public workers, including teachers, to reflect 95 percent of their regional private sector counterparts. All previous promises are nullified. This is the price of relative job-security.

Ÿ Reduce all government contributions to not-for-profits by 3 percent.

Ÿ Impose a tax of .25 percent (1/4 of 1 percent) on all not-for-profit organization(s) income for 5 years.

Ÿ Retroactively and immediately, all politicians lose their health benefits and all other stipends the moment they leave office.

Ÿ End retirement income for all politicians. It should be a calling, not a vocation. However, to be fair, if you are currently a retired politician who is 65 or older and served in elected office for 20 years or more, or one who is 50-plus, not retired and has 20-plus years elected service, there will be a 10-year phasing out period.

Ÿ End double dipping in government pensions (excluding Social Security).

Ÿ Retired government workers with multiple choices can choose one.

This is just a start. Balancing a budget rarely involves one or two sweeping cuts. It is a bunch of tiny, seemingly insignificant cuts that eventually add up to financial stability.

Chris Margarites

Hawthorn Woods