Published: February 13, 2008 09:16 pm            

Letters to the editor - Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008

State should stop taxing homesteads

I, like everyone else, wonder how many more tax burdens we can carry? I think of all the people that work for minimum wages, and all the seniors that live on a fixed income. With the price of gas, groceries, utilities, how are we going to make ends meet?

I read in the Kokomo paper Dec. 26 about a program a New York town is pushing to let seniors work part time for $7 an hour to pay for property taxes. It states an elderly lady lives on $620 of Social Security a month. Her property taxes are $12,000 a year. She has lived there 43 years. She has turned to a reverse mortgage to pay her bills, and she is still losing her home to property taxes. It also states she is 76 years old and has to use a walker to get around.

I don’t know about you, but I think that is a poor solution to property taxes. With that program, some high-roller making $100 an hour can leave town and let that little lady come in on a walker and work for $7 an hour. I hope that program stays in New York.

Why not permanently eliminate homestead property taxes? Why not charge every household, every apartment, every dwelling $5, $10, $20 or whatever it takes a month, every month? Let every business pay taxes on a monthly basis. If they pay too much or not enough at the end of tax time, then tally up. Let every home pay equally.

We probably have plenty of retired seniors that would volunteer to collect or work with a plan. We sure don’t want to see the elderly people losing their homes because of taxes, or anyone for that matter.

If we eliminate homestead property taxes, that would allow anyone to purchase a home and not have to worry about losing their home because of a property tax problem.

We need a solution we can all live with.

Geneva Housel

Kokomo

Restaurants should pay servers more

As a response to a Feb. 2 “Jeer” from Staci Smith regarding tipping, a tip is a voluntary offering to a server for service well performed. A tip is neither expected, nor is it mandatory. I usually tip only because I usually receive excellent service.

As for paying waitresses only $2.13 per hour, that is royally scandalous considering that it is well below minimum wage.

Kenneth Crockett

Kokomo

        

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