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Editor, News-Register:
I understand how government works. We pay taxes so the government can provide us with services we need, such as public safety. But since West Virginia's population keeps decreasing, shouldn't the government need less money from us to provide those services since it's for fewer people?
You would think that is the case, but costs do go up. So here are your options. Oppose Amendment 2 and vote to pay more and more taxes in the future since we already know fewer will be paying for government services. Or, do the smart thing and vote for Amendment 2.
I am deliberately over-simplifying taxation to make a point about West Virginia's personal property taxes on automobiles. When I buy a car and title it in West Virginia, I pay a host of taxes and fees. That's something I accept. But then, each year after that, I get to continue paying personal property taxes on something I paid taxes on when I bought it.
My car is personal property, like my clothes, furniture, and bicycle, and yet my car is the only item I have to pay taxes on not once but twice, three times, four times, as many times as the years I have owned it. Why? Because our Constitution demands it, as some say. Things have changed since the 1930s when the personal property section of our Constitution was drafted. Only the rich and well-to-do had cars in the 1930s, seldom more than one for a family. Our failure to modernize and update our tax laws will only place a continued hardship on many hardworking families.
You see, the government does not help me maintain my personal property, but it taxes it every year.
Think about that: I have to pay the government to be able to use my personal property, which I bought, with many taxes by more government.
Thank goodness voters will have a chance to bring some sanity to this quagmire in November. Passage of Amendment 2 will allow the Legislature to modernize personal property taxes in West Virginia and provide a path to return some fairness to the grand bargain between taxpayers and government. I hope all those reading this letter will vote YES on Amendment 2 when they go to the polls on Nov. 8.
Gary Glessner
Wheeling