2006 Interim (Essay #1)
June 24, 2006

ON TAXES.

Taxes are a blessing. Good for us. Are welcome. Helpful in our lives.

There. You have a politician saying what some claim no politician will openly admit. Granted, this fellow is a geezer who will never run again and is not counting votes.

However, this geezer is passionately interested in the public good. Put simply, I am grateful for the ways to buy what I need.

Some basic needs are hard to buy where I live. I live in a community of 50,000 people -- greater than the size of Grand Island -- with no hardware store, no clothing store, no shoe store, no movie house, no office supply, no computer support, and no "night-out" restaurant where you can go without getting smoked out. Our closest movie is in another state.

Do I like this? Not one bit. Imagine Grand Island with none of the above. It is one more face of the citywide prejudice against "North Omaha." Do understand, North Omaha is a wonderful place to live. We like it. We are in the safest, most attractive neighborhood of the nine homes of our married life. However, we have to travel many miles for basic services.

Now let's think about what I can buy. With taxes. Roads and streets. Police and fire protection. Good schools, from Kindergarten through graduate degrees, including training in the trades. Clean air, and good water to drink. Sanitation, sewer and indoor plumbing. Trusted measure at the gas pump and the meat counter. Trusted ingredients on my cereal box. Stop signs to protect me. Regulations that provide attractive parks and prohibit unattractive businesses. Control of banks and businesses so they can not do whatever possible to take my money. Planes with licensed pilots and a universal worldwide code of airport safety. Delivery of my mail, around the world, with international protocol.

Wow! Look what I can buy, right here in River City. Every item listed above is something I very much want to be able to purchase. I can procure all of it through taxes. Praise God.

Someone grumping about taxes this past year pointed out that we do not set the fees for the above and I do not know what some of my tax bills will be. Quite true. It is also true that I do not set the fees at the gas station or grocery store. I do not know what my next electric bill will be. Certainly, I can look at the price before I buy, but as these are necessities I will pay the bill whether I think it is fair or not. I can change my life style and buy less gas, but I can also change my life style in order to pay less taxes.

Do taxing authorities need watching? O my yes. Accountability is in short supply, especially on the federal level. That, I submit, is a separate question. We want the services but we must be ever watchful of the manner in which they are provided.

In summary, the anti-tax rhetoric of a few is tiresome, dull, and plainly off-point. They luxuriate in soaring words of self-praise about being better than "taxers" but have not one specific "entitlement" they are willing to let go. Pay your bill, fellow.

Some of it is humorous. As one example only, a few talk about being "Reagan Republicans" and therefore anti-tax. Well, I was a Reagan Republican until I figured out my grand kids could not afford him. He perfected the art of talking meanly about taxes while increasing the bills for the above services and passing the costs on as debt. His "anti-tax" rhetoric included: "I believe that a country as great as the United States can afford anything it wants." If a father announced that about his household we would consider him to be contributing to a dysfunctional family.

My next essay will be on "entitlements" -- which has been a fascinating subject to research. We sneer at the word, while citizens clamor for more. Entitlements are by far the major cause of increasing tax bills. The most fiscally conservative arfe as likely as any to add to them. Creates a fun mix of values.

Until then, let's hear three cheers for what well-regulated taxes can do!

Lowen