Taxes pay for society’s services

Re “Jobs are on the line,” March 3

California has a $16-billion shortfall and must either raise taxes, or cut services, or both. Yet a small minority in our Legislature vows to block any new taxes to pay for the basic services a decent society requires.

Cutting funds for schools is like eating our seed corn. It will impoverish our future and the future of generations to come.

We need firefighters, police, roads without potholes, clean water, clean air, sewers and courts, among other services. We are a community that can and should take care of the poorest and sickest among us.

If you oppose new taxes, which of these necessities would you cut (or eliminate)?

We are in this together and cannot opt out of our responsibilities. “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society,” Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said.

We can make California great again by paying our fair share just as our parents and grandparents did for us.

Catherine G. Burke

San Gabriel

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When all elected officials’ children attend public schools, I am sure $4.8 billion will magically appear.

Leslie N. Herschler

Garden Grove