LETTER: Carson City politicians should trim government before hiking property taxes

Bravo on your March 14 editorial excoriating Assembly Bill 43, which will raise residential property taxes to a flat 3 percent (0.2 percent right now) and keep it there every year. At the Assembly Taxation Committee hearing, we were treated to unintelligible explanations and even the outrageous assertion that AB 43 would not raise taxes.

County governments claim that unless the Legislature passes this bill, they will have to cut services. This is a tactic designed to scare the public into supporting the bill.

Government’s unsustainable pace of growth and spending must be reversed. Bloated and uneconomical contracts and retirement packages with public-sector unions resulting in unfunded liabilities of more than $10 billion are well documented and unduly burden taxpayers.

Government does not produce anything; it depends on the production of the private sector to fund its “programs and services.”

Ordinary citizens have to live within their means and absorb the impact of increased costs of government by sacrificing their own modest lifestyles and benefits. Those on Social Security certainly do not see their incomes rising by 3 percent per year.

Governments have no incentive to economize; they spend “other people’s money” (yours). We must demand that government reduce the burden on taxpayers by eliminating waste, abuse and fraud while also reducing unsustainable pay and benefits packages for public-sector unions.