Using psychology to sell the education SPLOST to taxpayers

“I’m proud to pay taxes in America; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money."

— Arthur Godfrey, 1950s TV show host, 1903-83.

We want our children to say No to illegal drugs. We want our children to say No to lawless gangs and peer pressure. We want our children to say No to religious cults. We want our children to say No to smoking pot and tobacco.

We also want our children to say No to getting body parts like noses, eyebrows, lips, tongues, etc., pierced and adorned with rings and studs. We want our children to say No to distasteful tattoos and even baggy pants.

In short, we want our children to say No to a bunch of things we perceive, most of the time rightly, as harmful and dumb.

Meanwhile we, and they, are all bombarded daily with advertisements which invite us to say Yes to everything under the sun. Yes to credit cards and easy loans. Yes to fancy or muscle cars. Yes to junk food and drinks. Yes to celebrity-endorsed sneakers and other stuff. The list is long. It probably started with sugar-coated cereals and toys advertised on TV when we were kids.

Not only do our children need to learn how to say No, in a society that constantly beckons a Yes, we need to learn to say No ourselves, sometimes to our children and often to the world at large. If Suzy wants a pony, the answer may have to be No. You still love her.

Yes is easier to say because we are made to feel we are pleasing someone else. And most people aim to please.

Which brings us to raising taxes.

You’ve heard it said that taxation is the art of plucking the goose so as to get the most feathers with the least hissing. Just imagine the skill involved in getting the goose to pluck its own feathers.

So why do people say Yes to raising their sales tax, as with a SPLOST?

First, consider how the issue is presented on the ballot: Shall a special 1 percent sales and use tax be imposed in Fayette County for a period of time not to exceed five years and for the raising of an estimated amount of $100,000,000 for the purpose of...

At that point there usually follows a real Christmas tree list of attractive goodies crafted in a way that seems to offer something for everyone. For those who dislike property taxes there are often soothing words about reducing property taxes. The projects or buildings that are offered are geographically dispersed throughout the county for broader appeal, whether needed or not.

Sometimes the prize is expressed as an opportunity to get matching funds from the federal and state governments, as for roads. Fayette County voted Yes in 2004, in response to just such an “opportunity.”

There is no one to explain that in a county with a population of 100,000, $100 million represents $1,000 per person. Per person, not per family.

Currently, each 1 percent of LOST and SPLOST tax in Fayette County brings in $20 million a year. Over five years, that’s $1,000 per person. Babies included.

What one must realize is that selling SPLOST is a sales job like any other sales job. The idea is to distract people from the thought their family is about to pay $3,000 or more, which perhaps they can’t afford, and to make them focus on the prize.

The question, “Is the prize worth $3,000 to my family?” does not enter their mind, in large part because the $3,000 is never mentioned and they have not been encouraged to figure it out.

Voters are also led to believe this tax may last less than five years, when in fact the amount is deliberately set so high that it’s impossible for it to end before the five years are up.

Then will come the time to suggest the tax be extended by another five years, for a cycle that in effect makes the tax permanent. On the second vote, the tax rate won’t rise; it will simply stay the same. That will make it psychologically easier for many people to vote Yes. Who says there’s nothing addictive about taxes?

Another technique consists in convincing people that it’s other people who will pay the tax, and not they. The key words here are visitors, tourists and shoppers. With no proof at all, sales tax promoters will come up with high percentages based upon seeing out-of-county car tags.

Not content to simply dangle a carrot in front of the voters, the SPLOST promoters also know how to use the stick, as is the case in the forthcoming Fayette school tax vote.

Thus voters can be threatened with seeing schools close, teachers laid off, courses canceled, kids put in trailers or go on double sessions, roads become more congested, crime rise, pollution increase, etc.

That’s negative selling, as when the new car salesman tells you that that old clunker of yours might leave you stranded anytime. (If a mechanic tells you that, you ought to listen. But beware the salesman.)

There’s also the shame factor and the minimizing approach, as when a kid is made to write a letter to the editor stating, “Are you so tight that you wouldn’t pay one penny, just one penny, so we could have better schools?” That’s from the people who call a 1 percent sales tax a penny tax. Some news reporters like to do that.

There is a psychological aspect to selling taxes that we can’t ignore. The bad part, of course, is that those who chronically make bad economic decisions can engulf their neighbors into unwise spending, because taxes cease to be voluntary right after the election has been held.

People have an understandable emotional reaction about anything concerning their children, and thus schools. They want the best for their children. What school system has yet achieved perfection? Schools could always be better.

As many voter polling stations have been placed in public schools, the soft spot in mothers’ hearts can more readily be exploited. When dropping a child off at school, or picking him up, it can be convenient to go vote if the polling station is right there. If the SPLOST vote is about anything connected with schools, a Yes vote will be not only tempting but also convenient.

There’s also the impact of what surrounding counties are doing. We all know children are subject to peer pressure and that their natural response is to want to be like the other kids. Some people never grow out of that mode, and as adults they want to conform and be like the other guys. Monkey see, monkey do.

That is currently being done in Fayette County, as SPLOST promoters tell us 177 out of 180 school systems in Georgia have an educational SPLOST. While we are told our school system is superior and we do not want it to be like the others, we are invited to be just like the others when it comes to financing it.

Some people resent paying the higher tax, when they visit a neighboring county. They resent it so much that they resolve to hike their own tax so that when their neighbors visit here they’ll get the same treatment. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!

There’s also encouragement from people outside the county who are already paying a higher tax. Some Atlanta people already paying 8 percent tax would like their neighbors to come up to their level. Hence editorials from Atlanta newspapers generally support bringing us to the level of their editors who pay higher taxes. Misery loves company.

There are also people who enjoy the power to control other people’s lives by making them pay a higher tax. That borders on sickness, but our society has its share of sick people.

Selling taxes is a tough act. The folks in the business use all the tools they can to reach their objective. Salesmanship is largely based on psychology. And emotions. One emotional moment can cancel out 20 rational reasons for the opposite decision.

I wish I could get a textbook on psychology where I could tick off all the ways people can be manipulated into voting to increase their taxes. It is almost funny to watch the people of Georgia do it.

One might also observe that Fayette County already has a SPLOST, for roads. It is due to expire on March 31, 2010, so the county government will undoubtedly want it renewed when municipal elections are held in the fall of 2009.

No politician wants the road SPLOST competing against the school SPLOST. Thus the school board may deem it wise to exploit the current situation to get its SPLOST in right now.

When I get all choked up over taxes, I try to remember what Arthur Godfrey said. Think about it: you can feel proud every day with a sales tax. But wouldn’t you be just as proud with half the tax?

[Claude Y. Paquin, a Fayette resident, is a retired lawyer and actuary who took courses in psychology while attending teachers’ college.]

Mr Paquin

Submitted by suggarfoot on Sat, 10/18/2008 - 10:22am.

you are right on the money. This is a job of trying to fleece the parents. Not for the betterment of the children either.

login to post comments

Footnote on SPLOST psychology

Submitted by Claude Y Paquin on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 4:39pm.

As I stated in previous weeks, there has to be a practical limit to the length of my articles, out of respect for the readers’ time and not to use up newsprint unnecessarily. For readers who prefer more complete explanations and have the patience to read them, I provide this footnote in electronic form.

From attending teacher’s college, and later teaching adult education courses, I learned that people can best absorb information when it is presented in small bites. Thus I prepared a lesson plan for the citizens of Fayette County, with eleven lessons in it.

My first lesson, published on Aug. 13, presented a history of the sales tax in Fayette County, from 0 percent to 6 percent. One key point was that the people of Fulton and DeKalb counties were fooled in 1971 into believing the MARTA tax they were voting for would go down after seven years. Thirty-seven years later they’re still paying the full tax.

The second lesson, on Aug. 20, explained how large businesses unload a bit of their property tax onto consumers whenever there’s a shift from property tax to a sales tax. Thus Chambers of Commerce have good reason to support sales taxes that do that.

The third lesson, on Aug. 27, refreshed Fayette citizens’ memory about the school SPLOST vote of 1999, and the school board’s unethical practices trying to get it passed.

The fourth lesson, on Sept. 3, provided a history of the school bond vote of 2000, and explained how it became the source of balloon payments and thus high school bond taxes for 2008 and 2009.

The fifth lesson, on Sept. 10, showed how school bond property taxes are scheduled to go down appreciably (40 percent) starting in the fall of 2010, with no SPLOST.

The sixth and seventh lessons, on Sept. 17 and 24, provided a review of the explanations the school system had given for SPLOST, before they were withdrawn and hidden away in early September. These lessons showed the school board greatly exaggerated the extent of its problems, including the cost of school buses and computers.

The eighth lesson, on Oct. 1, showed the voters the exact question they will read on their ballot, and it explained what financial impact a Yes vote will have on them. In the process, it showed how the school board whose motto is “Where Excellence Counts” did a sloppy job while rushing to get on the ballot.

The ninth lesson, on Oct. 8, examined two arguments commonly advanced by those who promote sales taxes, and it showed them to be unsound.

This tenth lesson, published Oct. 15, looks inside the minds of people who readily say Yes to more sales tax, even when they proclaim to be against tax increases or against politicians honest enough to say they might have to increase taxes.

The eleventh and final lesson, scheduled for Oct. 22, will suggest to the reader a method for deciding how to vote, and will also prepare the readers for an 8 percent sales tax soon. At a store near you.

login to post comments

Mr. Paquin

Submitted by Spear Road Guy on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 10:21am.

I totally agree with you! I can't buy the agrument that Coweta, Fulton and Clayton are doing ESPLOST so we should too. Who in the heck wants to live in Coweta, Fulton or Clayton???

Vote Republican

login to post comments