Your July 31 edition has a front page story with the headline, “Senior tax break costing borough $300K.”
That is incredibly offensive. Since when does anyone “owe” the borough for the right to live here? The borough’s responsibility is to spend money wisely, keeping the tax burden on the residents to a minimum and not take the upper hand as if they are indispensable and the residents aren’t.
In that article, among other things, it mentions one way to address this: “With a slightly increased mill rate.”
I have found in Haines an incredibly different attitude among those whose income is hard-earned by their hand and labor vs. those whose income comes from grants, taxes, government or other forms of non-profits.
Maybe we need to “look” at property taxes from a different perspective.
Property taxes are something that can bring a change of ownership to what one owns. If I fail to pay my property taxes, the borough takes my property away from me.
In essence, I am required to “pay” the borough for the right to live in my house. Do you think I want to see an increase in what I have to pay or a decrease?
It isn’t rocket science, folks.
Steve Virg-In