Jonathan E. Curtis: No big-ticket tax relief

Regarding the April 29 letter “The sales-tax fog”: I had to chuckle at the letter from state Rep. Paul Stam because, once again, we have an elected official sneering down his nose, saying to those complaining of tax reform that, “Apparently they don’t purchase anything.”

Then I became indignant at this public servant’s crass dismissal of the people he is supposed to be serving. These letter-writers and people across the state buy things but barely and rarely. The poor continue to struggle to put food on their tables so the likelihood that they are out buying big-ticket items where a sales tax decrease just might be noticeable is slim to none.

The elderly (and even us not-so elderly) continue to be confronted with health care costs that are as debilitating as the illnesses they face where a big-ticket item isn’t a traditional sale but rather a necessary procedure or medication in order to stay alive. The elderly, the poor and even the middle class aren’t purchasing as much because they simply can’t afford to – sales tax reductions do not amount to a hill of beans.

And how conveniently the writer ignores all the new taxes on services and the proposed jump on car sales and leases. Stam should be ashamed.

This story was originally published April 29, 2015 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Jonathan E. Curtis: No big-ticket tax relief."