Bob McNamara

Upham

Tis the season for politicians to show how tough they are and how in touch they are by saying they will lower taxes. Also, for people to complain about taxes in order to tell politicians how mad they are and what they want them to do. In reality does anyone like taxes? The answer is no they don’t. No one likes paying taxes; however, doing away with taxes would be foolish.

First off what tax don’t you like — federal tax, state tax, county tax or city tax or school tax or what? I often hear people say they want their teachers to be well paid and to have good schools for their kids. They want their police and firefighters to be well paid and well-staffed. They want good roads and of course they want them plowed. They want nice communities with parks and swimming. So, what exactly do you want to do away with? Do you want to cut the military? How about cutting highway patrol or snowplow operators or road maintenance? Do you want to double the size of classrooms so your kid is lost in the shuffle? How about reducing the city water department so your water goes to hell. What exactly do you want to do away with other than doing away with your responsibility to share in maintaining your community or state or country. I guess I would be curious as to how much you think a person should pay in taxes. You get a military, you get far more paved roads than ever in ND, you get police protection, you get fire protection, you get embassy protection as you travel. In fact, the list of things you get for your taxes is mind boggling. Sit and think of all the things and then think about how much a person should pay for your country, your state, your community.

To say the legacy fund, as big as it is, will solve all your woes is silly. There are things that can be done with the legacy fund but doing away with your taxes is the worst idea. For example, maybe the state school superintendent could develop a basic school design for all schools in the state. It could provide a minimum design for elementary, middle and high schools with adaptations depending on size and fund school structures with the legacy fund. It could provide a standard saying each school will have an auditorium, science lab, gymnasium or whatever. That way every school would meet a standard for students, would be maintained, would take the burden of school bonds (and thus some taxes) off communities, communities would still maintain local control of curriculums and could add to the school if they wanted to finance it — locally voted on of course. And it would use the legacy fund for the benefit of the entire state not just select businesses. I haven’t fleshed out this idea but I believe it would be plausible and beneficial. But maybe not. Maybe there is something else that could be done that would be beneficial across the state and help reduce the tax burden but not just do away with your taxes.

If you are running for office and say I will reduce your taxes you don’t have a plan you have a saying. If you can’t tell people specifically what you are willing to do away with you should just stop campaigning on it. If you are someone who just wants to say do away with my taxes you don’t help the process. Specifically say what you want to do away with so others will know what their community or state will look like with your ideas. No one likes taxes but everyone should be part of the community and everyone should have skin in the game.