Reader comments
Readers' forum: Listen to taxpayers

Granny | 5:50 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

I couldn't agree more. No more tax increases. Everyone has to tighten the budget belt including Utah State government. Begin with trimming our top-heavy administration in every agency, especially education.

Taxes are theivery | 5:59 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

The writer is right - tax increases are theft. Even tax money for education is an immoral, coercive larceny against a free people. I should not have to be forced to pay for my neighbors' children. I pay for my own via home schooling.

Making me pay for others' childrens' education is a (potentially) violent extraction of my hard earney money.

It is immoral, pure & simple.

Letter poorly thought out | 6:41 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

To the writer of this letter,

I am a taxpayer and I supported the Davis District bond. It would have been foolish for me not to. The money needed to be spend and would have eventually been spend anyway had the bond not passed now but by then it would have been so obvious that students would have been suffering.

Also what better time than now to bond for the needed capital expenses? Do it now because interest rates are at an almost all time low, and construction costs are down now too.

Spend less time listening to Rush and more time thinking things through, you and the community will be better off.

Comments continue below

Doug G | 7:03 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

Note to Loren: Deficit spending. Huge debtload. You may be responsible for dealing with some of it.

Anonymous | 7:29 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

While I empathize, which services do you want cut? And if they are cut, are you prepared to deal with the consequences? I'm sure you are not thinking past your own personal interests.

Anonymous | 8:24 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

Just another tax whiner, nothing to see here.

Cut Non-essentials | 8:42 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

To Anonymous @7:29 a.m.

Get rid of the Zoo, Arts, and Park taxes - these aren't essential services. Let the users pay for these.

Same with the transit sales tax. Pay for transit via the fare box.

While watching the recent high-school football playoffs I couldn't help but wonder how many tens of millions are spent on these non-essential activities while teachers want smaller class sizes, more pay, and supplies.

Set priorities and spend accordingly. When times are tough you eliminate frills.

Bro Chuck's Rant's n Rave's | 8:42 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

Loren Minert of Salt Lake City, for a second there I felt you had some DNA in you of President Bush (the father), when you said "read my lips, no new taxes", stop asking for all the pretties n thing's in pork projects in Utah, and new parks, etc, there's consequences in those, like ways to pay for them, then taxes goes up, silly. Make sense?.

Danny C. | 9:08 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

Taxes are not inherently evil. Society benefits from having an educated populace, roads, building improvements, emergency services, etc.

But there's no question that the monies need to be more intelligently and more ethically handled.

Oh Please | 9:43 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

OK, let's listen to the people. Last night the people in Davis County where I live agreed to bond themselves for better schools. So the people spoke. What's your beef?

@Cut non-essentials | 9:53 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

Since I use public transportation and don't drive to work every day, how about if we cut the number of roads paid by all taxpayers, regardless if they use them or not?

From the Author | 10:05 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

Notes to Responders:
1)Davis bond supporter - I pointed out that the DesNews has never found a bond (or a tax increase)that they did not support. Don't you think that if they could have found one contrary data point, they would have listed it in an editor's note below my letter? Think that one through.
2) I am willing - and look forward - to reductions in so-called services. I have a deaf daughter, and I pay for speech therapy, hearing aids, etc. on my own. I have never even considered asking for government help. We, as a society, need to cowboy up and do more on our own. Every special gift you get from government is paid for by your neighbors. Would you pound on their doors and demand cash? That would be theft. It's also theft if you use the power of government to steal from them.
3) My DNA has nothing to do with either President Bush, nor with Rush Limbaugh. It is pure American, brought up to take care of my own and give to my neighbors in pure charity. I'm simply saying that Utahn's are out of money for taxes.

@ Public Transport User | 10:58 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

Here's a novel idea; let's take all the money spent on public transportation in a year and divide it by the number of riders for that year. Let's be fully honest about the data; that means including amortization of capital (buses, Trax cars, rail, etc), cost of maintenance, cost of operations, etc. Let's count every rider who gets on, and not double-count transfers (as UTA does). You'll find that for every dollar you spend, my neighbors and I toss in about ten dollars. Instead of griping about the highways I pay for, how about thanking my neighbors for making your commute so inexpensive.
You're welcome.

Charles | 10:59 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

@From the Author: ignore the ignoramuses who are belittling you above. They are the ones who sent their teenagers out early on Halloween to bring home the candy so they could in turn hand it out from their house.

The Rush comment above is just plain silly and shows a lack of knowledge by the poster.

@letter poorly thought out --- the word is spenT, not spenD

Anonymous | 12:08 p.m. Nov. 4, 2009

re Taxes are theivery | 5:59 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009

The writer is right - tax increases are theft. Even tax money for education is an immoral, coercive larceny against a free people.
_____________________________________

This is a hoot!, where do these people get these ideas?

Hatuletoh | 4:03 p.m. Nov. 4, 2009

When people say "cowboy up" in the context of not taking hand-out's it makes me laugh. A great many ranchers get government subsidies. And as a card-carrying member of the Utah Farm Bureau, I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with that.

Anonymous | 4:37 p.m. Nov. 4, 2009

The folks against taxpayer handouts are very selective. They only see how their wealth is distributed.

I grew up in a liberal LDS family. Once, FDR carried Utah. We were taught paying taxes was part of good citizenship. The army, taught me that life isn't fair.

My grandfather was driven out of Mexico from a LDS settlement during the Mexican Revolution. His father, William Derby, lost all the land he once owned near Kanab.

My grandfather, father and mother lived through the Great Depression and WWII.

I hear Americans today telling how bad they have it. They never saw polio or small pox. They have never starved or been cold. They have three cars, a boat and they travel. These same people will talk for hours about how bad things are.

It's troubling and embarrassing.

My mother's mother send six sons off to war. We really have it bad.

Being single, I paid to educate kids. This liberal feels I benefit by having Americans educated. I've never dwell on the fact I pay the highest rates for my income.

Let's be like Rush and whine, but never think of our blessing in life.

Gov. Not Listening to All | 5:40 p.m. Nov. 4, 2009

Government has always listened to taxpayers, the ones who agree with them. I think the others are ignored.

No matter what a majority of voters want I don't think that anyone has the right to vote my property into government coffers, unless in the interest of all.

A lot of public education is hardly in the general interest. I don't need my neighbor to be a popular player on, or cheerleader for, a High School team. I don't need my neighbor to be instructed in the technicalities of violin playing by a publicly paid music teacher. I do need my neighbors to be able to read instructions, balance their check book, and so on. Let that at least be paid for out of public funds and leave the rest to voluntary funding.

I recall my own school syllabus; half of it was unessential. You could educate the school population in three or four hours a day and ten years time. That could be done in existing buildings by utilising two separate "shifts".

You could also build additions to existing buildings rather than build new ones. Build on the sports fields.

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