It has come to my attention that the Mayor of Fountain Hills is a member of a group called “Liberal Ladies.” That, on the surface, would seem to be good news. Liberals are always credited with being compassionate and having the interests of the poor at the top of their priority list. Knowing this, I’m sure that the mayor (and the Town Council) will support the repeal of the sales tax on food and the rental tax in Fountain Hills.

While taxing food and housing is never a good idea since both of these things are essential to life itself, taxing them during times of high inflation, economic uncertainty and diminishing retirement income is especially onerous to the poor. And, by the way, taxing rent is a double tax since property taxes are already levied against all properties in Fountain Hills.

Governments have the power to tax things. Taxing something (anything) will always result in less of whatever you are taxing. That is a law of economics. It follows then that taxing the food and housing that keeps us alive is not compassionate, but rather heartless and uncaring.

I suggest that the new council take a serious look at all of the Town’s expenditures, line by line, and find areas to cut in order to give this tax relief to our town’s poor. The poor will find areas in their personal budgets to cut. They have no choice. They will likely cut a meal a day, or maybe even move to the street to save on rent. This new council was elected to make real changes at our town government level. Cutting taxes on life’s essentials seems to me to be a great place to begin.