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Why Not A Balance Between Sales, Income Taxes?

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 5, 2008

Re: Mr. Chamberlain's letter concerning the merits of a sales, property tax balance.

Mr. Chamberlain suggests that a proper balance between a sales tax and a property tax is the best way to collect tax revenue. Why not a proper balance between a sales tax and an income tax?

He correctly argues that a sales tax has the merit of a broad base that includes the tourist population. With the exclusions of food, clothing and Medicare that he mentions, such a tax is less regressive and less unpalatable.

But the property tax has no such merit and has the odious feature of penalizing the provident. Ms. Patterson's ("Why I favor the income tax") plight illustrates this perfectly. She does not have the income to pay her property tax and is therefore in danger of losing her home.

Property is acquired in the first instance through savings and investment. People save and invest to provide for themselves and their families. Why frustrate this socially useful impulse?

I appreciate Mr. Chamberlain's defense of the sales tax. The flat-rate income tax with a generous exemption is an equitable means of collecting tax revenue without the socially destructive features of the property tax. I'll let him supplement it with a sales tax and hope he will give up on the property tax.

Tom Troyer

Brooksville

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