Payson Roundup

Editor:

I believe most Arizonans would agree that food, clothing, shelter, electricity, water, gasoline, land line telephones, and insurance for our homes, health and vehicles are necessities for living in Arizona in 2009 and beyond. I also believe that most Arizonans agree that beer, liquor, tobacco, lottery tickets, cell phones, text messaging, sports tickets (ASU, U of A, Suns, Cardinals, etc.) movie tickets, soda pop, DVDs, and many snack foods like chips, pretzels and candies, are not necessities for survival in Arizona in 2009 and beyond.

Since our myopic legislature is allergic to any tax increase to assist us in our time of financial distress, why not add a charge to all of the non-necessities listed above and call them revenue enhancements?

If this idea was enacted, our Republican legislators wouldn’t have to allow us, the taxpayers, to vote on the 1 percent sales tax increase proposed by our Republican governor, and we could generate revenue from items that aren’t really necessary for our citizens to have for survival in these tough economic times. It seems like not only is there a shortage of money in our state, but it appears that there is also a shortage of creative thinking in our state legislature.

Richard Meszar