Taylor Swift and Rhode Island may break up and never, ever get back together after the state named a tax after her and her extravagant home.
The world-famous singer bought an oceanfront mansion in Rhode Island in 2013 that may now have her seeing red. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo proposed a statewide property tax on second homes worth at least $1 million in her budget, now widely hailed as the “Taylor Swift tax.”
The tax would raise an estimated $12 million in tax revenue, far short of the $190 million budget deficit the state government needs to close.
“Gov. Raimondo would like Ocean State residents to simply ‘Shake It Off’ with regards to her new Taylor Swift Tax,” Paul Blair, a state affairs manager at Americans for Tax Reform, told the Washington Examiner. “But, much as Swift has abandoned country music, this tax hike will have the effect of leaving swaths of ‘Blank Space’ throughout Rhode Island as small business owners and retirees opt for more friendly states who aren’t engaging in this petty class warfare that will do little to solve the state’s massive $200 million overspending problem.”
The tax would not only hurt those with stylish oceanfront mansions, but also those who own second properties that they rent out. “If I have a three-family house in Newport that I don’t live in that I rent out, that’s going to be subject to this tax,” Bruce Lane, president of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, told a local radio station.
But at least those Rhode Island residents can tell Raimondo the tax hike leaves them with teardrops on their guitar. Out-of-state residents who have a love story with vacation homes in Rhode Island might pack up and leave the state, on their way out singing,”We are never ever getting back together.” Those residents can’t vote in Rhode Island elections, but they can vote with their wallets and start singing “Welcome to New York” instead.
Anti-tax advocates might never get out of the woods on this issue. Raimondo defended the proposal even after the tax was publicized as the “Taylor Swift tax,” and the state’s general assembly is heavily-controlled by Democrats.
Raimondo doesn’t face re-election until 2018, but the political and economic consequences of her “Taylor Swift tax” might leave her singing “why can’t you see you belong with me?” to voters.
