Little incentive to pay full taxes

Re “You still owe online,” editorial, April 13

Voluntary tax compli- ance is based on the citizen believing that taxes are both fair in substance and able to be collected.

As long as California continues to use Proposition 13 to tax me 10 times what my next-door neighbor pays, I will never consider the state’s taxation system to be equitable. California therefore has no morally valid claim to any of my resources that I can avoid giving it.

Until California leaves the Union and sets up customs posts on its borders, I will make my purchases wherever it is advantageous.

California needs tax reform, and I applaud The Times’ past editorial support for it, but this editorial went against that laudable end. If California will not join in a uniform sales tax regime, it is only demonstrating its continued fiscal dysfunction and providing residents more incentives to avoid paying taxes.

Kim Stevens

San Pedro