Re: [Winona] County Budget Cuts

[DeanLanz]

I have to disagree with Bob (as usual) on that point.
Taxes, for the most part, are for the benefit of the tax payer. Taxes used to fund schools, build roads, provide for health care, the national defense. Taxes to clean up the environment and so on all benefit the tax payer.
It seems to me the real problem is not the taxes but this "I got mine and to heck with every one else" attitude that has become so prevalent in American the last 20-25 years. Since approximately 1980 which, not coincidentally, was the real beginning of the slow but steady swing to the "right" and away from such values as community, equal justice and peace that had prevailed since the end of WWII ~ if not before.
When we see people writing letters to newspapers claiming that they shouldn't have to pay ANY taxes because the money is theirs and not government's, as happened this past Summer in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and we see organizations such as the Minnesota Taxpayer's League (which should really be called the Minnesota Ant-taxpayers League) using their vast influence to elect candidate like Tim Pawlenty on a promise to not raise any [state] taxes before assessing any need for possible tax increases, is it any wonder that such an ant-tax mentality exists in our state and nation today?

Dean Lanz