That makes no sense
Our lawmakers were concerned with falling gasoline tax revenue. They looked around and decided it was because less gasoline was being sold. Then they looked around and decided it was at least partly due to the fact that some people own "hybrid" or "electric" vehicles that don't burn as much fuel as other vehicles. Then they decided that the way to bolster the decaying gasoline tax revenue must be to tax those who aren't burning the fuel. So the special fuel-efficient vehicles must now pay an annual tax of $100 or $200, respectively. This is the worst course of action imaginable.
Why not tax deceased persons for not purchasing gasoline? Literally, that makes about as much sense. You could also tax homeless persons because they don't pay property tax. You could tax nondrinkers because they don't buy alcohol in an obvious attempt to keep from paying alcohol taxes.
Let's make some sense of all of this. Suppose we all decided to walk or ride bicycles, or roller-skate wherever we want to visit. Personally inconvenient, but devastating to gasoline tax revenue. What would we do then, tax shoe leather? Bicycle chains? Skate bearings?
I think what we need to do is to get a new group of lawmakers. The ones we have are complete idiots. Their only value is potentially the entertainment value we may get from their next inane actions. They would be hilarious if not for the out-of-pocket impact they can have on all of us.
I'm personally interested in the ideas others have to solve our current dilemma.
JAMES MILFORD
Little Rock
Reasoning on taxes
I enjoy listening to accounts of Supreme Court debates because of the logic involved. The justices seem to base most of their reasoning on the principle of analogy as applied to similar situations. What we do there, we should also do here. Consistent application of this principle often underlies their decisions. Based on their example and in line with the Arkansas Legislature's new charge to the owners of hybrid and electric cars for not paying their share of gas taxes, I'd like to propose a few new tax increases.
Consider a property-owning man who lives in a modest house and drives an old compact car. By refusing to upgrade his living conditions and means of transportation, he is not paying his fair share of property taxes. To bring him up to par, the principle above would clearly demand a tax increase. Or take a woman who is not pulling her part of the load as a consumer. Under some anti-social notion of thrift, she tries to keep her purchases of all kinds to a minimum. When she does shop, it is mainly at sales and on bargain days. Picture the effects of people like her on the sales taxes on which so many of our public services depend.
Like Prius owners, such people are trying to game the tax system. Some sales-tax surcharge is surely in order. Or, more broadly, think about the woman who, just because she likes it, works at a job that pays less than her level of education would warrant. Think how much state and federal government programs lose in income taxes from vocational whims like hers. On people like her, consistency would again dictate a tax increase.
It is easy to see how a few easy applications of standard legal thinking like these could swell our public coffers. And if such shirkers, like electric car owners, should attempt to justify their behavior by appealing to some higher public good (like, say, a healthy environment), our reply will be obvious: "Be reasonable. What we do there, we have to do here."
MILTON BURKE
Fayetteville
Pennies for thoughts
Do we really need the penny? The answer in most transactions is "no." For example, if you go to a convenience store and your total at the checkout is $3.97, how likely are you to say, "keep the change" while handing over $4? Do you really want the pennies back?
I believe one reason the United States should stop using the penny is inflation. Inflation has spread across the land as the cost of living increases with everything else. A gallon of gas in 1969 was roughly around 35 cents. Today, gas can be over $2. This just proves how minuscule the penny has become due to increase in prices over time.
Another reason to stop using the penny is the amount of annoyance that comes from having these coins on hand. Having many pennies can take up time to count and then give to the cashier who also has to count these coins. This increases time in line by several seconds.
Machines at the local Walmart and Kroger (Coinstar) will accept change and convert the total over to bills, such as ones and fives. This is a good reason to keep the penny alive. I wouldn't suggest getting rid of these machines in the process of eliminating the penny from use in transactions. It's only fair that people can still get their money's worth of what they had in terms of pennies.
While I realize it is unrealistic to eliminate the penny entirely, my proposal is only to eliminate the penny from use at the cash register and round down to the nearest five cents on total, which can save people money in the end. I understand that some people depend on every cent that they can get. This solution will benefit everyone by saving money and time from collecting pennies.
JOSHUA SHERIDAN
Benton
Arkansas traditions
To Karen Redd of Maumelle regarding her statement, "money means nothing; tradition is more than any monetary amount. Pay whatever he wants and hire Urban Meyer," in her lament about the Hogs and their losing ways: May I offer a few long-standing "traditional" Arkansas statistics and rankings, some involving monetary amounts, that might interest you? Sources include the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Study, Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Education, and the National Center For Educational Statistics, including reports by CNN, CNBC and Forbes.
Arkansas ranks 47th in overall educational attainment. Arkansas ranks 48th in percentage of college graduates over the age of 25. Arkansas ranks 50th in percentage of graduate degrees. Arkansas ranks 49th in gross domestic product per capita. Arkansas ranks 47th in median household income.
Keep throwing all that money at coaches, and you will be assured of keeping traditions.
ROBERT GLIDEWELL
Sherwood
Editorial on 10/21/2019