Mel Gregerson wrote:

> Why isn't anyone surprised that taxes didn't decrease as the politicians
predicted?

For anyone who really understood how the property tax reform worked, it
didn't reduce the cost of government overall.  It just shifted the burden of
taxes from one kind of tax to another.  It also had substantial tax cuts for
rental and business property, which shifted the percentage of the burden
more onto homeowners.  For many Minneapolis homeowners (me included), I will
see substantial increases in property taxes in the future.

>When governments increase spending, they must increase taxes.

There is no free lunch in the world.  Remember this for anyone who tells you
they will cut your taxes.  Cutting your taxes means reducing your services
and you should ask some hard questions about what you are going to lose if
they say they will cut taxes.  In my experience, they usually won't talk
about that.

> The answer is to vote for officials who pledge to vote against all
spending increases until our taxes reach the average level of the other 50
>States.

Then we could be just an average state.  But average states don't have good
business climates.   They don't have good quality of life.  They aren't
places people want to invest in.  I think in the rush to cut taxes, people
lose what makes this state good too.  It is the balance between these two
things that is very difficult.

Carol Becker
Longfellow

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