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Letters to the Editor
It is very helpful in spreading the word about tax fairness and modernization to let your voice be heard, loud, proud and publicly. One way to do this is by sending a letter to the editor of your local paper. We at TFT recognize that sometimes it can be a formidible task to draft such a letter. Therefore, we have compiled some sample letters to the editor for you to use as examples in your own writing.
Letter 1
Letter 2
Letter 3
Letter 4
Where to Send Letters to the Editor
Letter 1
To the editor:
Now that the 2009 Tennessee legislative session has drawn to a close,
it’s time for a review. There were lots of social measures of
questionable merit, but the big failing of this year’s General
Assembly had to do with the one measure they must pass every year – a
balanced budget.
As the year began, everyone knew we would be facing an unprecedented
revenue shortfall. In a disappointing display of conventional
thinking, the Governor and legislators agreed to respond to the
revenue crisis with spending cuts. I commend them for closing the
nonsensical Family-Owned, Non-Corporate Entity (FONCE) loophole, but
that raised a paltry $22M in the face of a $1.4B shortfall.
What we needed was a revenue enhancement to correct a revenue
shortfall. If they had tried, they could have found a way to call on
the top 20% of earners in the state to pay the same portion of their
income in state and local taxes as the bottom 80%. That measure alone
would have eliminated the revenue shortfall.
Maybe next year. |
Letter 2
To the editor:
Tennessee’s unemployment rate for May was 10.7%. It will continue to
rise as the 400 private sector layoffs announced this week are added
to the others announced in June and the idling of the Spring Hill
plant hits the stats. The state will be laying off another 700
employees in the near future.
Tennessee’s leaders have followed the course that Nobel prize-winning
economist Paul Krugman warned against in his December 2008 column
“Fifty Herbert Hoovers”. He advised the 50 governors to balance their
budgets with additional revenue from wealthy taxpayers rather than by
cutting state budgets. He warned that cutting budgets and laying off
state employees would make the recession longer and deeper by further
diminishing consumer spending. Taxing the rich would not reduce their
spending – only their saving. The revenue would serve to retain state
employees and programs and preserve consumer spending.
There was a bill in the legislature this session that would have done
just that. SB2054/HB2182 sponsored by Sen. Reginald Tate and Rep.
Larry Turner. Let’s hope our representatives and the administration
will give it serious consideration next year. |
Letter 3
To the Editor:
The legislature has recently recessed, having chosen to respond to the conflagration of recession in Tennessee by adding coals to the fire, shrinking critical public services, slating 750 state employees for lay off and freezing plans to fill another 700 vacant positions. (Tennessee's $29.6B Budget Passes, Tennessean, June 18, 2009.) It's the Herbert Hoover economic plan. The TFT Real Budget Deficit study reports that our $30B budget was already $3.4B short of merely bringing us up to middling standards in comparison with our sister Southern states in financing education and other critical public services. The state budget is an investment in Tennessee's future and a down payment on a better future for our children. Our legislators urgently need to roll back our regressive sales tax and begin a progressive income tax that will address both our systematic failure to invest enough in that future and our current Herbert Hoover approach to cutting public services when they are needed more than ever byTennessee families. |
Letter 4
To the Editor:
The Tennessee Legislature is to be commended for closing one of several loopholes in the state's revenue program, the FONCE (Family Owned Non Corporate Entity) program under which businesses run by members of the same family, under the old law, did not have to pay certain business taxes that everyone else has to pay. Happily, our Democratic Governor strongly backed this correction in the law. Although the correction will not generate a great deal of new revenue, it is the right thing to do and we are proud that our governor and legislature moved in the right direction.
But there are other loopholes that need to be addressed as well. Modernization of our revenue system in the state is long overdue. It should include the closing of other loopholes in the present revenue system, abolishing the sales tax on groceries, reducing the sales tax on other items and establishing a tax on personal income with generous exemptions for lower income taxpayers. The present reliance on sales taxes no longer provides the state with necessary resources because more and more money is being spent on services and non-taxed items. Sales taxes are rarely collected on internet and mail purchases. Other states without an income tax rely mainly on special revenue sources that are not available in Tennessee, e.g. oil in Alaska, tourism in Florida, gambling in Nevada. Cutting state services such as education and aid to persons with disabilities is not the only way to balance the state budget.
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Where to Send Letters to the Editor
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