LETTER: We need to abolish property taxes

I strongly agree with Mr. Gillispie’s thoughts about property taxes and his idea to replace them with a sales tax, which would broaden the tax base. It is especially a great idea in our county, with all the corruption in the tax assessor’s office. However, it really needs to be implemented statewide. Otherwise people would avoid using local retailers and service providers due to the higher sales tax. This idea has been proposed by Representative Glenn Richardson, where he suggested elimination of the state income tax and ad valorem (company inventory, automobile, property) tax, as well as the county property tax.

Eliminating the property tax, as Mr. Gillispie and Rep. Richardson have suggested, is a much more fair way to collect local revenues to run government. It would collect a little from everyone who uses the government services instead of a great amount from a few select citizens.

Elimination of the property tax would be a great step in the right direction and the need for it cannot be seen more clearly than in Madison County, with the corruption in the tax assessor’s office. There is a strong similar proposal nationwide to replace the income and payroll tax: The FairTax. To learn more about this, go to www.fairtax.org

Thanks for a great local news source!

Sincerely,

John Graves

Neese