Spreading taxes

To the editor:

I wholeheartedly support Mayor Mike Amyx’s proposal for a 1 percent sales tax. The amount of dollars I pay each year for property taxes has steadily increased due to my property’s appreciation.

I have been following closely all the statements made by our city concerning our infrastructure needs. I am sure these are all genuine needs and should be addressed immediately lest they fall into total disarray and hence cost many times more to fix than what they would cost if they were fixed and maintained correctly now.

If seems to me that right now there is quite a bit of tax inequity. Our city is fortunate to have KU located in the heart of the city. The only problem is that they don’t contribute any property tax dollars to the system and therefore, we the citizens must subsidize the property tax system for what they would have paid. By raising the sales tax rate 1 percent, nearly 25,000 students pay a larger amount toward city services. These students are huge consumers of city services – streets, parks, police, fire, bus, recreational services, code enforcement – just to name a few.

Shifting the tax burden from property tax to sales tax is a very fair way of spreading the cost of city government over our entire community. By approving a sales tax, we will be able to provide first class infrastructure and service for all to use, and the taxes will be equitably spread through receipts from both property taxes and sales taxes.

James Russell Mather III,

Lawrence