TAX NEWS - JUNE 2010

Virginia Tax: Let's Have Respectful Exchange

After living in Northern Virginia for 14 years, it is a pleasure to read a newspaper like the Daily News-Record. The DN-R provides a balanced forum for viewpoints written by local citizens and a variety of columnists.

Based on my experiences thus far, however, it seems that some readers do not use this opportunity to express just a different point of view, but instead put down those with whom they disagree. They must demean and disparage in order to raise their own self-esteem. It would be refreshing to read more "I-statements," as responders take responsibility for their own arguments rather than attacking the personal integrity of others and pretending that constitutes a debate.

Most recently, I am referring to the letter from Chris Edwards and Robin McNallie, ("Be Thankful You Have Taxes to Pay," May 27). They seem to be more interested in projecting a demeaning attitude onto me than in discussing the point of my article ("Council Employs Deceptive Tactics," May 19). They suggest I object to paying taxes. Not so! I suggested that local governments be "transparent" about planned tax increases. They say I "scoff" at taxes being raised for parks and recreation. Not so! I said parks and recreation were not my preference for the use of additional tax money when police and fire protection budgets were being cut. 

They say that I and others like me are "anti-taxpayers" and "whiners." I don't think so. I didn't say I objected to paying my fair share of city taxes, provided everyone else was doing the same. Was it necessary for them to imply I'm cheap by "protesting" a mere $25 tax increase? No! The point was that small increases for taxes and utilities eventually add up to challenge family budgets. They suggest I am ungrateful for my home and the benefits I have as a resident of Harrisonburg. These innuendos become outrageous. Why do people send in letters that vilify others rather than just make a counterpoint to an argument?

Should we be willing and even happy, as Edwards and McNallie suggest, to pay whatever taxes are assessed by government? Certainly not! While it is true that "taxes are what we pay for civilized society," as they say, that does not mean we should be thankful to be taxed. Taxes are not a privilege we should thankfully pay without question, as many in our national government wish us to think.

Taxes are what we pay to have communities with services we could not otherwise individually provide for ourselves, such as  public schools, police and fire protection, sanitary water and sewer systems, streets and drainage. These advantages create an environment and a community in which people wish to live.

Taxes are assessed for these purposes, purposes taxpayers agree to and support them. Every government body has a responsibility to taxpayers to spend tax money wisely, with as little waste as possible, and to be accountable to those who pay the taxes. That is one reason we have periodic elections.

Government bodies that tax and spend money on projects without public support and approval should be challenged, held accountable and replaced when necessary. There can be no public patience with any government body that taxes the people without full disclosure and public assent.

The current policy of the U.S. Congress to "borrow and spend," creating unmanageable deficits, and then to "tax," will first drive our nation into insolvency and bankruptcy and, eventually, enslave us to taxation. Unbridled spending will eventually lead to unbridled taxation. Economists predict a huge tax tsunami on the horizon that soon will overwhelm us unless changes are made in the current attitudes of those who govern.

If you are one who can blissfully look at the coming flood and be thankful for the taxes we will be paying for generations to come, then I am happy for you. I cannot.