Wednesday, March 15, 2023

We're officially three years in

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Today's Opinions

Wed Mar 15 2023

Do you remember the before times? Before COVID ravaged the world and forced shutdowns. Before we were all made to hunker down for what many of us thought would be a passing flu? Before we turned on each other over vaccines and masks and closed schools?

We were so young. The world was so much nicer, wasn't it?

Whelp, don't look now but we're a full three years into this mess and the USA TODAY Opinion team has feelings about that.

So take a moment to read our column below on how life has changed and where things might go from here.

When the world went crazy: What we've learned from COVID's long road

A COVID-19 patient is taken into a hospital on March 19, 2020, in Houston.

States began issuing COVID-19 lockdowns on March 15, 2020. Three years later, USA TODAY Opinion staff look back on how the world has changed.

With Tax Day -- April 15, 2 020 -- drawi ng ever closer, Americans from all corners of the country will be completing and submitting their 1040 forms to the Internal Revenue Service in the coming weeks and months. While every American is subject to the same federal tax code, state and local tax laws vary dramatically by region -- and so does the overall financial burden of those taxes. In addition to the federal income tax paid in April, most state governments also levy an income tax. And many state and local governments also levy property and sales taxes. A ll told, the typical American pays just over $5,000 a year in state and local taxes, equal to 9.8% of their estimated annual income. The national average, however, is not representative of the typical tax burden on a state level. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the total tax payments as a share of income on a per capita basis to identify the states with the lowest and highest tax burden. Federal taxes were not included in the calculation. Of the property, sales, and income taxes, property taxes account for the largest share of state and local government revenue on average nationwide. More so than other forms of taxes, property taxes are often set by local authorities, including cities, counties, and school boards. Still, state governments often establish parameters in order to keep property tax rates somewhat uniform. The states with the highest overall tax burdens tend to have higher than average property taxes. These are the states with the highest (and lowest) property taxes . Most of the states with the lowest tax burden share is the lack of a statewide income tax. Each of the seven states that do not levy any form of personal income tax has a lower overall tax burden than the national average. While tax codes that impose little or no income tax tend to have a lower overall tax burden, the wealthiest residents typically benefit the most. Here is a look at the most tax-friendly states for the rich .

Here's good news about equal pay that Democrats don't want you to hear

As a woman, I want to be paid equally and think that should be the standard for all women. The good news is that it's already happening.

Tom Shafer, right, enjoying his 90th birthday at a drag brunch show in 2022.

We celebrated my husband's 90th birthday at a drag show. So what?

I still don't know why folks are threatened by drag queens, or threatened by other folks at all, especially those we don't know. Just love.

A worker tells people that the Silicon Valley Bank headquarters is closed on March 10, 2023, in Santa Clara, Calif.

Was Silicon Valley Bank's collapse the fault of diversity? Hah! No.

With the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, many Republicans have strayed from the vague safety of 'wokeness' and nonsensically pinned the blame on 'DEI.'

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