Have you seen the latest howler in the local paper? Just look for The Valley Reporter on Facebook. And don’t miss the comments.
In the whirlwind of numbers are a few funny dust devils. The story starts with the old trope that the LOT will turn the Valley into an economic miracle for just pennies a day.
It goes on to wail that the Valley doesn’t have enough taxes! The state gets to tax our visitors but we don’t! It sounds like visitors enjoy the Valley without paying for it, conveniently leaving out all that they pay to our inns, restaurants, retailers and services. Visitors and locals alike pay the Valley’s businesspeople and their employees, and that’s good because they’ve worked for it. It’s cause for celebration, a sign of our vibrant economy. Far better than giving money to a shadow government that hasn’t earned it and offers no sound plan as to what it’s for.
The newspaper story adds a twist that “investing 12 cents gets us 88 cents back”. No, nothing comes back. We will pay the tax, our visitors will pay the tax, and the unelected shadow government will spend. The LOT people should forget the tax. They would raise much more money by selling pretzels at the Farmers’ Market. They’re that good at twisting.
What part of “we are already being taxed to death” do these people not understand?