Tax Not the Answer

If Proposition A, the half-cent sales tax for roads and trolleys, is approved in November, then it’s fair to assume another half-cent tax increase will pass next spring for jails. This will be a 17% total increase in the sales tax.

Compounding the increase is the fact that, starting this year, sales tax is no longer a deductible expense on the individual’s income tax return.

The result will be that San Diego consumers will be more tempted than ever to completely avoid the state sales tax. They have three avenues of escape.

The first is the time-honored method of purchasing goods by mail from out of state. The higher the sales tax here, the less important the shipping charges are to the consumer.

The second is to go to Tijuana to shop. Conversely, the higher the sales tax, the less likely Mexicans will shop here.

The third is an option open to an unusually high percentage of our county residents; shop at any of the many local military exchanges that charge no sales tax.

The bureaucrats’ economic projections are based on the false assumption that government can raise taxes and the taxpayer will continue his same buying habits. Not so. Higher tax rates mean rising prices, lost sales, faltering businesses, increasing unemployment and lower tax revenues than promised.

JOHN MURPHY

San Diego