Editor:
I feel that I must say something about the ongoing debate about the property tax issue. Nobody likes them particularly those who pay them with no hope of ever getting anything in return, since increased services promised are neither wanted nor needed. The ones who are hurt the most are low income people who are barely getting by any way. We have a moral and ethical issue here and that is my main concern. There are three points I would like to make.
First, there are many people in our county who cannot afford a tax increase. In an article in the Statesboro Herald on June 24 about why people do not use banks, there was an indication that fourteen percent do not use them because they don’t have enough money. Whole businesses, according to the article, cater to people who do not use banks, for whatever reason. An elderly neighbor, who recently died, worked as a laborer on a farm and saved enough money to buy a little house for him and his aging wife. His income before he died was $500 a month, out of which he paid utilities, food, clothing, and everything else, including his taxes. Where would he and many others get the money for a tax increase? One person recently told of someone who got the money to pay their taxes by picking up pecans. A third person spoke to me about tax increases recently, who is retired as well as his wife. They are struggling trying to make ends meet now and a tax increase would be an extra burden. It is a time for compassion, not cold heartedness; austerity, not expansion. Proverbs 21:13 says, “He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered.”
My second point is that the county promised that the “Splash-in-the-Boro Tax” would be reversed because it would be self-supporting. That has not happened and the one per-cent tax had to be reaffirmed. With the high prices for tickets, one would think that that “tub” would one day sit on its own bottom and even bring in revenue to reduce the tax load. Good economics teaches that EVERY NEW PROGRAM SHOULD BE SELF SUPPORTING.
Everybody would like to create more jobs and see businesses grow. At a time when gas prices have doubled, interest rates are increasing, medical costs are exorbitant, and insurance prices are out the roof, the timing is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!
The tax increase is most unpopular. I have never had so many people come to me who are concerned about it. Back off a little. There are two sides of a balance sheet and one is CUT EXPENSES. Cut some services. My dirt road doesn’t need to be scraped every week. The frills can wait. Consider the multitudes of poor property owners! Give people time to catch up with bills. We will be better off in the long run.
Bob Green
Register
I feel that I must say something about the ongoing debate about the property tax issue. Nobody likes them particularly those who pay them with no hope of ever getting anything in return, since increased services promised are neither wanted nor needed. The ones who are hurt the most are low income people who are barely getting by any way. We have a moral and ethical issue here and that is my main concern. There are three points I would like to make.
First, there are many people in our county who cannot afford a tax increase. In an article in the Statesboro Herald on June 24 about why people do not use banks, there was an indication that fourteen percent do not use them because they don’t have enough money. Whole businesses, according to the article, cater to people who do not use banks, for whatever reason. An elderly neighbor, who recently died, worked as a laborer on a farm and saved enough money to buy a little house for him and his aging wife. His income before he died was $500 a month, out of which he paid utilities, food, clothing, and everything else, including his taxes. Where would he and many others get the money for a tax increase? One person recently told of someone who got the money to pay their taxes by picking up pecans. A third person spoke to me about tax increases recently, who is retired as well as his wife. They are struggling trying to make ends meet now and a tax increase would be an extra burden. It is a time for compassion, not cold heartedness; austerity, not expansion. Proverbs 21:13 says, “He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered.”
My second point is that the county promised that the “Splash-in-the-Boro Tax” would be reversed because it would be self-supporting. That has not happened and the one per-cent tax had to be reaffirmed. With the high prices for tickets, one would think that that “tub” would one day sit on its own bottom and even bring in revenue to reduce the tax load. Good economics teaches that EVERY NEW PROGRAM SHOULD BE SELF SUPPORTING.
Everybody would like to create more jobs and see businesses grow. At a time when gas prices have doubled, interest rates are increasing, medical costs are exorbitant, and insurance prices are out the roof, the timing is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!
The tax increase is most unpopular. I have never had so many people come to me who are concerned about it. Back off a little. There are two sides of a balance sheet and one is CUT EXPENSES. Cut some services. My dirt road doesn’t need to be scraped every week. The frills can wait. Consider the multitudes of poor property owners! Give people time to catch up with bills. We will be better off in the long run.
Bob Green
Register