To the editor:

Thank you for your Wednesday editorial, “Discouraging policies,” concerning all the wonderful concepts being considered by our city commissioners. Wow! A greatly increased minimum wage! Fewer chain retailers downtown! Mandatory health benefits for employees! Higher impact fees!

I agree these are all lovely ideas designed to give our hardworking residents better quality of life. But wait a minute. Maybe we’ll just end up making their lives worse by making our city highly unattractive to new business, which brings jobs and supports our tax base. If our commission aims only at attracting perfect jobs, we might end up with no jobs.

I am a landlord. I own a small rental house just south of Kansas University that is occupied by a young couple with two little children. They have lived there since 2002. In four years, the county’s appraised value of this property has gone up 30 percent. And the real estate taxes have gone up nearly 50 percent. Hefty tax increases get passed along to tenants as rent increases. After all, it’s business.

Valuations jump up. Real estate taxes skyrocket! All Lawrence homeowners feel the pain. And, tenants, you too are paying these taxes whether you realize it or not.

No, I have not raised this little family’s rent in four years. Young Lawrencians are struggling, and I would feel awful raising this family’s rent. But I am not the norm.

Why doesn’t the City Commission “feel awful” about what’s happening to Lawrence taxpayers and do more to encourage business, not scare it away?

Susan Pogany,

Lawrence