To the editor:

Letter after letter from pundits for passing the T sales tax state that it is necessary in order for a very small group of the Lawrence population to be mobile within our community. These pundits have totally ignored the effect this tax will have on a major segment of our community, namely, the elderly living on a fixed income. The dollars consumed by this tax cannot be replaced. Once the dollars are gone, they’re gone!

The well-done graphics on the front page of the Oct. 12 paper showed where much of the tax money would be collected. While folks on a fixed income would not likely buy school supplies or a new car, there is that possibility. Some major expenses left off the chart are necessities, such as clothing, telephone, cable TV an Internet, home and auto maintenance. When you say to yourself that they don’t need this or that, think of your own needs. Would you do without TV? How about new clothes?

Look at what is coming in the next year for a home owner in Lawrence:

¢ a 15 percent increase in your electric bill.

¢ major increases in health care costs.

¢ continued increases in food costs.

¢ the annual real estate reappraisal.

¢ a school board that has never seen a tax increase they don’t like.

If you are on a fixed income and add all these skyrocketing costs up, what would you do without? Food? Telephone? Home heating? Add up the bottom line on the front page chart and you come close to two weeks worth of food! The folks on a fixed income should not have to ask that question; therefore, I am voting “no” on the T.

Chuck Thomsen,
Lawrence