Neither the sales tax nor the property tax is based on ability to pay.
Liberals from another time railed against the sales tax as unfair to working
families and the elderly. Maybe some 16-year-old in a civics class could
help us voting adults understand the economics of it.
We lucky Minneapolitans already pay a hefty 7% sales tax, a one-half per
cent higher tax than other state residents, for the priviledge of living in
the city. How high can it go? Did you check out the sales tax on your last
major appliance? On your car? On that new furnace? Think about a retired
woman living solely on a Social Security check who has to pay the same for a
new washer as a two-income family or a single working person. Most elderly
women either did not work outside the home, or worked part-time or at low
wage jobs. They may be living on less than $10,000 a year. Their
prescription drugs are going up faster than their laughable cost of living
increase in Social Security. They are paying $150-$250 a month for
supplemental health insurance coverage. They worry about paying for a new
roof. They got an $80 sales tax rebate from the State this year. Wow.
These women are our mothers and grandmothers. They stayed home to take care
of us, or worked at low paying jobs, so we could grow up to be smart alects
with a PC who spend our free time ranting about bikers speeding along West
River Road. They and their spouses, our fathers and grandfathers, built our
schools, churches, community centers and paid taxes so we could have an
affordable college education. Now its time to think about them and how they
will spend the last part of their lives.
Arguing the fine points of which tax is more regressive than another does
little to help our mothers and grandmothers remain in their homes. They
cannot affort any increases in either the sales or property taxes. Let's get
serious and recognize that ability to pay means you pay more if you make
more. Some of us have fogotten the admonition that to whom much is given,
much is required. I think we heard it from our mothers. That notion is not
popular these days, but that doesn't make it any less true.
Fran Guminga
Bottineau, Ward 3
Geezer bait
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F. Guminga
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
