Tax talk

To the editor:

Could it be that the Freedom Caucus may find itself a victim of the whirlwind with which Sen. Chuck Schumer threatened Supreme Court judges Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh?

The Freedom Caucus bought itself publicity by passing an unneeded property tax reduction during the last legislative session.  There are certainly some people for whom property taxes are a hardship, but these could have been taken care of without reducing the whole tax structure.

A quick check on number of cars, iPhones and spending habits could show where some of the
problems are. They could have fashioned a tax hearing board for hardship cases, instead of trying to affect everyone.

Wyoming has property taxes among the lowest, if not being the lowest in the nation. The residents of Wyoming are welfare recipients of a tax system that grants them at least twice the amount in services as that they pay in property tax. There are very few counties and cities which can keep up their required services now.

We do need to make changes in the tax structure to get more of the tax money to local needs and less to the state, which has to dole out funds based on grants for stated projects. Most of the cities are over 100 years old and many of their facilities are in need of replacement, but they can only work on a
piecemeal basis.

The caucus is trying to eliminate waste by attacking the tax instead of trying to eliminate the conditions that result in waste.

The people of Wyoming are fortunate to live in a state where the mineral wealth is adequate to sustain the major amount of the cost of government for a small population. We are very fortunate to have been able to build a large reserve fund, but it is not the function of the present to provide for the benefit of the future. The people of the future will have to figure that out for themselves.