Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Mindy Moran made an interesting argument—not a convincing one—but an interesting one in that she warned of the horrors of unfunded mandates if we don’t go along with her plan (“Mathews voters to decide on food tax,” Oct. 9 Gazette Journal). Let’s dissect this ruse.

First of all, there is no concrete reason for doing it. If the proper role of government is to provide for the requirements of the community then these requirements should be made known before the need to gain revenue through the imposition of taxes. Then the level of income from taxes can be sized to be sufficient to offset and satisfy the requirement. Anything collected in excess then should be set aside for contingencies, or returned to the taxpayer (there’s a novel idea!). Mindy has it backwards; she wants to increase the revenue gathering through taxation “just in case.” Her “just-in-case” is if the revenue from property taxes f...