To the editor:

To Mr. Fangohr’s complaint that Kansas boaters aren’t paying their fair share of taxes (Public Forum, Feb. 12), I would like to say that as a boat owner in Kansas, I would be delighted to be taxed the same way Missouri taxes boats. I’d even be delighted to be taxed the same way Kansas taxes cars and RV’s.

It’s true that there’s no system in place to charge sales tax on the private purchase of a used boat. However, Kansas still assesses property tax on boats the way cars and RVs used to be taxed, which is at 30 percent of appraised value. I still pay nearly $600 a year in taxes on my 26-year-old sailboat, which is appraised at less than $20,000. The difference between the two states is well over tenfold in this area. We Kansas boaters pay the highest total taxes in the nation, and that policy drives a lot of business out of Kansas and into the Missouri lakes.

So Mr. Fangohr, if you have a boat at the Missouri lake property you mentioned, why don’t you bring it to Kansas and really start paying some taxes? Otherwise I hope your suggestion is followed, and Kansas starts taxing boats just like Missouri. My taxes will drop, but yours may well increase.