If you were in charge of your state’s tax policy, which of the following would you choose for high-income earners and big corporations?

Higher tax rates (56%) – "Paying taxes when one is in the upper 5-10% of all salaries requires little to no sacrifices—and definitely no shortages of basic needs. The same cannot be said for anyone in the bottom half of wage earners in the United States."

• "Because the big corporations, and therefore the biggest earners, have a need for educated people to run their businesses,they should contribute more in taxes that would go to the school system, ect"

"People who are higher earners should pay more as they generally have more financial flexibility. Paying a larger percentage of their income in taxes still leaves them with a high standard of living, while lower income individuals may struggle to cover basic needs if taxed heavily.. A good example would be that $1000 means much less to someone earning $500,000 a year than it does to someone earning $30,000 a year. Progressive taxes reflect that difference taking more from those who are less affected by it. The taxes paid by higher earners, who benefit from stable infrastructure & economic systems. (often enabling their success) would sustain things like roads, schools, healthcare, and national defense - so it only makes sense that they pay more."

• "It only makes sense for the government to take more money from the people who own most of it; a billionaire CEO doesn't need every last dollar of their paycheck like a working class person who's struggling to pay rent does."

"It's unconscionable that high earners get off the hook and then lower earners carry a bigger brunt of the burden, and public services suffer: streets go unfixed, bridges become unsafe. People don't need that much money—millions!—to have a good life! More, more, more is a dangerous myth that is ruining society, the environment, our morals, etc."

Lower tax rates (11%) – "We need to encourage people to work, businesses to want to be in a state (creating better paying jobs), and people to want to stay in a state. Raising taxes on those who make more is contrary to all of those objectives. It seems as though people have forgotten basic math. 10% of a larger number is larger than 10% of a smaller number. Every system that uses percentage for taxes already charges higher earners a higher tax. And for that, they get the same or less services from the government. That is not fair by any measure."

Try for a middle ground (33%) – "As a country, we had a spending problem, not a revenue problem. We should not tax businesses, as those taxes just get built into the long term pricing structure of the company and therefore paid by the consumer. A flat rate tax structure with no deductions is the fairest way to tax people."

• "We need to encourage people to work, businesses to want to be in a state (creating better paying jobs), and people to want to stay in a state. Raising taxes on those who make more is contrary to all of those objectives. It seems as though people have forgotten basic math. 10% of a larger number is larger than 10% of a smaller number. Every system that uses percentage for taxes already charges higher earners a higher tax. And for that, they get the same or less services from the government. That is not fair by any measure."

"There should be negotiations on tax policy that include both the income and expense side of the equation. Not all taxes are bad and not all government expenditures are fraud riddled. The starting point for me IMO is to keep the state income tax and "cut" sales taxes. Those are the most regressive."