April 15th is rapidly approaching. Somehow it makes me think of Evel Knievel, who became a friend through my work at ABC Sports. Not surprisingly, he had his troubles with the IRS. He once said to me, “Money was made to be spent. If God wanted it to be saved, He would have put handles on it, so you could carry it around!” He sure didn’t carry it around. Once he opened the bank vault for me that he had installed in his office, revealing a full-sized, gold-plated Harley Davidson motorcycle…buried in cash, like confetti.
Under the Fair Tax, the government, instead of punishing Evel, would have loved him. The Fair Tax on his purchase of yachts, Maseratis, RVs, and gold something-or-others, would have repaired a lot of infrastructure in our country.
The more one thinks about it, the more outrageous it is that the government takes money we earn before we have it to spend. We’ve become brainwashed over four generations into accepting the outrageous income tax system that was once against the Law of the Land. We agree to work for a salary or a fee. We work for that amount, but a chunk is removed before we receive it. “Take-home pay” is a lousy phrase. Imagine what your paycheck would total, if nothing were taken out of it. We should take home what we work for.
Under the present system, if nothing were taken out, and we paid one annual amount, it would appear huge. Shocking. With new awareness, people would be outraged. For about 30 years it worked that way. Then, as taxes rose and became more burdensome, the government began taking our money directly out of our wages in small hunks, off the top, before what was our was ours.
As American citizens under Fair Tax, we would be fully compensated for our work and pay taxes painlessly, as we spend. It’s the dynamic change we need. It’s not a “bandaid.” It’s an all-encompassing solution to the economic mess that has evolved over many, many decades.
Fair Tax is real tax reform. Fair Tax means: federal income tax—gone; capital gains tax—gone; inheritance tax—gone; payroll taxes—gone.
Evel would have loved it. He was a star-spangled guy.
Doug Wilson
Malden-on-Hudson
New York must be vigilant on fracking issue
New Yorkers should worry about their clean water and air being devastated by the process of natural gas extraction known as hydrofracking. The entire name is “high-volume, high-pressure, horizontal, slick water, hydraulic fracturing”—high-volume (4-8 million gallons of clean water per well in 80-100 thousand proposed wells) high-pressure (15,000 psi vs 8,000 psi for the deep water Horizon Gulf well), horizontal (piped thousands of feet down and thousands of feet sideways) slick water (tons of sand, salt and toxic chemicals, some of which returns to the surface), hydraulic (thumping compressors and drills 24/7) fracturing (cracking new fissures in the rock of fault laden, shallowly aquifered New York State).
New Yorkers should be worried, wondering if the DEC will protect us through regulations controlling all of the above. The recent draft SGEIS or environmental impact statement was so weak that 14,000 comments forced the DEC to revise it. For example, it allows drilling 150 feet from sole source municipal water aquifers. It attributes all road damage repair (from the convoys of 1,400 giant trucks per well frack) to county highway departments, All health problems arising are referred to county health departments. Hydrofracking will cost our towns bundles of money. It calls the frack chemicals “hazardous waste” but the flowback fluids “industrial waste.” It ignores the 24/7 noise, lights and methane emissions from each well. There is no industry bonding, liability or tax. There are only 19 people in the Minerals Resources Division of the DEC, to both develop and police gas extraction. The revised draft SGEIS is due in June or July.
April 11 at 10:30 at the Capitol in Albany, New Yorkers will rally to demand no gas drilling unless the Department of Environmental Conservation guarantees the safety of public health, environment, and ecosystems in our state. By the way, hydrofracking is exempt from Federal environmental protection laws. http://www.citizenscampaign.org.
Vivian Beatrice
Saugerties
Mezzaluna rocks
Mezzaluna in Saugerties is the celeb place to be. Jimmy Fallon likes his local eggs served there over-easy. Today Mary-Louise Parker and friend stopped in for coffee and a cinnabun. They left with their driver in an Escalade with tinted windows. She thinks Mezzaluna is “cute.” We think Mezzaluna rocks!
JoAnn Cicale
Saugerties
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