Proud to pay taxes

Wanted: People who take pride in paying taxes. That’s what we do to support this lovely place where we live, we pay taxes. That’s who we are. Together, we make this a great place to live, to work, to play, to be.

Our job, (all of us, residents, citizens, leaders, elected, appointed, all) is to make this place a good place for all of us. Now. In Dunbar, Scotland, they wear tartan and tam to remember that. Maybe we should, too.

Paying taxes is about autonomy, local control, local responsibility, community participation, community development.

We, together, look at the tasks we have to do; we estimate the cost; we contrive a way we can accomplish what none can do alone, each of us contributing what we believe is fair. This is a matter of pride in our community. It is good to be us; we are the ones who pay taxes.

But sometimes we don’t. We may off-shore income, dodge. We may use a tax adviser, dodge. We may forgive taxes for a business, dodge. One who comes expecting to pay no taxes will leave when taxes appear.

Wanted: taxpayers.

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Proud to pay taxes."