“Taxed and Regulated to Death”: Libertarians Respond to DeWine’s Tax Bill
It’s a Monday afternoon in April. The sun is shining on the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio as I sit down with Kryssi Wichers, the Libertarian Party’s Political Director in Franklin County. She’s organized a symbolic protest on Tax Day — throwing tea into the Scioto River.
“A lot of people are being taxed 20–30% of their income. Not just their income taxes, but their sales tax, gas tax. I just paid tax on this (holds Tim Hortons coffee in air)!”
“We’re paying our state politicians ~$70,000 annually To debate what our state butterfly will be.”
This isn’t her first rodeo, either. Kryssi has organized and participated in dozens of protests over the years, “We participated heavily in Occupy Portland where we camped out for like five weeks, protesting corporate control of our government.”
Although according to Kryssi, this is somewhat new territory for the LP in Ohio. With more pressure mounting as DeWine’s gas tax was passed on April 2nd, the 10.5-cent gas tax hike is facing opposition not only by the statehouse, but the citizens who will feel the effects of this.
Protesters gathered on the Discovery Bridge around 3PM, some travelling nearly 100 miles for the protest.
While the state politicians were busy in the statehouse and elsewhere, these people were making change, sparking influence, and most of all turning heads.
What’s next?
“We are going to continue participating and organizing protests in the future. But the big goal is for us to meet new people and be able to link them with other like-minded individuals in order to take this movement beyond direct action. we want to use these events as a way to energize people to participate in their local government, be it state, city, even township level.”
If you want to learn more about the Libertarian Party, and stay up to date on the LP of Ohio’s campaigns and events, visit https://www.lpo.org/ for more information.
LP Ohio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LibertarianPartyOhio/
