Questions I would like reporters to ask about Heineman’s tax plans (UPDATED)

Please link me in the comments if these questions are being addressed and I’ll update this post accordingly, because all I’ve been seeing so far is a bunch of cheerleading masquerading as news.

1. If the tax burden on corporations and high-income taxpayers (referred to colloquially by Heineman and co. as “small businesses”) must be lowered in order to make Nebraska more “business friendly,” yet if the proposals are revenue neutral, who will be paying more to make up the difference?

2. Since the alleged economic benefits of lowering taxes on corporations and high-income taxpayers are accepted without any burden of proof being placed on those making the claims (even within a story in which companies have already moved here to take advantage of Nebraska’s offerings), what would be the economic impact of raising the taxes on those who will pay the difference required to make the proposals revenue neutral?

3. How does eliminating state income taxes and raising state sales taxes translate to higher tax receipts for cities? You’d think a story dedicated to that would explain the mechanism for reaching such a profound conclusion. What is the connection between an increase in state sales taxes and city tax receipts? Are we supposed to believe that people whose sales taxes are now higher are suddenly going to feel compelled to spend more money?

Of course, reporters are instead busy spreading completely unsubstantiated spin about the magical effects of the tax shift, referring to a regressive tax shift as ‘reform’ with no attibution, or reminding us (yet again) that Heineman was an Army Ranger.

UPDATES!
From the good people of Twitter (and if you’re not following me, do it):

To which I responded that this assumption ignores the effects of regressive consumption taxes on levels of consumption, to which Dave replied:

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