Letter to the Editor

The News Courier encourages letters to the editor. Submissions should be no more than 400 words and include name, address and telephone number for verification. Submissions that do not meet requirements are subject to editing. Writers are limited to one published letter every 30 days. Send letters to P.O. Box 670, Athens AL 35613 or email to adam@athensnews-courier.com. The deadline for letters is Wednesday at noon.

Small-town hospitality

Dear Editor:

I travel through Athens two to three times a year to go to the beach and have always admired your small-town beauty.

Tuesday, March 18, I was riding alone to go to Gulf Shores and was involved in a motor vehicle accident. I cannot express enough how kind and caring your local residents, first responders were to me while I was so scared and vulnerable. Specifically, Athens police officer Chris Madrid, Athens Fire & Rescue Service, Justin Self of Randy’s Towing and local resident, “Wolf” May.

These folks went above and beyond to help me get my car up and going and kept me safe and comfortable during a very stressful situation.

Even though I live almost six hours away from Athens, your city is so forever near and dear to my heart!

Sincerely,

Gina Mack

Indianapolis, Indiana

Tax not so bad

Dear Editor:

In the letters to the editor, Saturday, March 16, some writers seemed to have their feathers ruffled by the passage of a bill to increase the gasoline tax. I don’t like increased taxes (of any kind) either, but just as we need an occasional raise in our wages and salaries, our state lawmakers must occasionally find a new source of revenue or raise taxes to provide funding for our aging infrastructure.

In my opinion, at lease a gasoline tax is a fair way to increase taxes. Those who use the roads and highways more would pay more tax to build and maintain the roads and bridges. Everybody’s got some skin in the game.

The only suggestion for another way to raise revenue was a lottery. In the past, a lottery was tried (and failed) as a source of funding for education. I don’t recall a lottery proposed exclusively to fund repair of infrastructure.

The tax reminds me of how a 1-cent sales tax was rammed through in Athens in 2012. Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks and City Council President Jimmy Gill were reported in the New Courier (September 30 through October 22, 2012) as saying no new tax increase was imminent and that residents would be fully apprised before any tax increase. Then, Marks, Gill and the outgoing city council members, rammed through the tax before the new council members could be seated.

As I remember it, the citizens were given two or three days for comment after the citizens discovered that the tax had been quickly and quietly rammed through. It was a done deal by the mayor and the old City Council.

In my opinion, all the new sidewalks, though largely unused, are nice. I challenge any neighboring city of our size to pave as many miles of sidewalks.

Sincerely,

J.M. Turner

Athens

Helpful tax cuts?

Dear Editor:

When Congress passed the Trump tax cuts it promised that the additional personal spending they would allow would increase wages, employment and investments so much that we would actually get more tax revenue even though rates were lower. Middle income Americans were ready for the thousands of additional dollars the cuts would bring them. The different institutions and services that we depend on were awaiting their new funds.

That did not happen. The vast majority of the tax cuts went to corporations and very wealthy individuals. Corporations largely used their extra money to make CEOs and wealthy investors even wealthier than they already were. As many outside the Republican Party predicted, the gain in tax revenue from economic growth failed to offset the loss of revenue from the reduced rates. That is important.

Taxes don’t end their lives as taxes. They become expenditures. They pay for roads and bridges, school buildings and teacher salaries, aircraft carriers and tanks. They pay for the fire and police departments that protect us, and the state and national parks that renew our spirit. If you are 65 or older, or on a limited income, expenditures from taxes pay much of your healthcare costs.

All of that means that lower- and middle- income Americans got a double-whammy. First, they did not see as much money in their pockets from the tax cuts as they expected, and second, the Republican Senate is now using the growing shortfall it helped create to justify cutting back on programs and services that we depend on.

Tax cuts could help many Americans if they were planned truly to benefit lower- and middle- income groups. Tax cuts that further enrich the rich in the debunked hope that the money will trickle down do not. Alabamians need to put money into the hands of people who will spend it, save it, or invest it here, where we live. We need to make sure there is money to support the services and institutions that help us and our families meet the challenges we face each day.

Tax cuts that pay for winter homes in the Bahamas and vacations in the Alps, or that get stashed in off-shore accounts, do not help us in Alabama. Tell that to Congress.

Sincerely,

Ken Hines, chairman

Limestone County Democrats