Time was, I was a rather strict, doctrinaire libertarian. One of the convictions I retain from those times is that taxation is never better than a necessary evil. As a friend of mine liked to say: we should make taxes just as we make war: with great caution and only when absolutely necessary.

The sole moral redemption for any sort of tax is a combination of the following attributes:
1. A genuine public necessity -- not a frill, a subvention, or a charitable impulse -- for which no private individual or organization will answer;
2. Constitutional or charter authorization for both the method of taxation and the activity to be funded by the tax;
3. Appropriate legislative enactment and limitation.

If a proposed tax fails to exhibit any of those three attributes, it is theft, though its promoters strain ever so valiantly to portray it otherwise.

Therefore: There's a lot of theft going on these days, under color of law.

Kessler can osculate my gluteus. At Yippee-Ki-Yay World Headquarters, all gift cards are redeemed promptly. To fail to do so is like the hypothetical in the Geico commercial: we're not so rich that we'd rather keep our seat.

It's theft, but I bet it passes.

The average person hates the idea of big corporations making money at all, let alone by means a demagogue such as Kessler can easily attack. He'll try to make himself sound reasonable by citing the 20% he'd magnaminously allow the companies to keep.

I've never understood why gift cards aren't redeemable forever.

I have a $25 rewards card from American Express, by dint of having spent some ungodly sum of money, and it comes with a list of caveats as long as your arm, unless you make a living as a power forward in the NBA.

One interesting sentence: "The shopping card should not be used to pay for taxicab, water taxi, or limousine services."

Wait until Kessler finds out most coupons are thrown away! Wow, think of the money "wasted" there, dude! I'd better contact him straight away.

Just don't mention you have a couch, or he'll expect you to send him the change from under the cushions.

The legal notion behind this proprosal is what is called escheat. Property considered abandoned by its owner for a period of years, frequently 7 or more, is taken by the state through these laws.
This state rep's suggestion is far too quick on the take to suit any normal notion of the escheat laws.

Perhaps he was only thinking of the second syllable./f

Indeed. Oklahoma, in fact, goes to considerable effort (as in "putting out a humongous newspaper supplement twice a year") to locate possible owners before taking control of unclaimed stuff.

"I'd rather the state get the money."

Well, I'd rather *I* get the money, but I don't have the monopoly on legalized theft that the state has.