November 24, 2003

Dear Sir,

I am writing regarding today’s front-page article, "Warner outlines tax plan".

Once again we see the mind of the politician at work. The State coffers are experiencing a shortfall. What to do? Well, we could reduce government spending. State bureaucracies could exercise more fiscal responsibility (just like those of us with mortgages and other bills). Why we could even look at reducing the size and scope of those very same bureaucracies. Nahhh!

Let’s raise taxes! Any tax will do. And we’ll cloak those increases in class warfare. We’ll tell the people that only a "certain" few will actually have to pay more. The rest of you are exempt. And while someone else’s ox is being gored we smile and turn the page. Then one day it is our ox that is being run through and we wonder how this could have happened.

In the Governor’s plan I saw NOTHING about fiscal responsibility on the part of the State, just another politician using the populace as their personal piggy bank. No screaming and hollering about, "How will the citizens be able to afford a tax increase?" Remember the outrage from the political hacks when the citizens dare to ask for a tax cut? You’d think the sky was falling.

I can only hope that commonsense prevails in the General Assembly and this plan meets a quick and certain death.

Sincerely,

Floyd C. Bayne