Taxpayers forum

The Gazette has an article about the candidate forum held by the Kalamazoo County Taxpayers Association. From the article:

Much of Wednesday's discussion centered around taxes and government spending. Vander Roest, Hoogendyk and Zondervan declared their opposition to any kind of tax increases, while DeShazor and Romero took a less simplistic approach.

``Sometimes you have to spend money to make money,'' said DeShazor, adding that investment in such areas as education and infrastructure could fuel economic growth.

Romero pointed to education as an area that may need more state dollars rather than less. He was the only candidate in attendance to support a proposal to guarantee annual increases in state funding for K-12 and higher education.

Romero and DeShazor joined the others in calling for elimination of the state's Single Business Tax, but were the only two who said the state would need to find another revenue source to replace the $1.9 billion generated by the tax. ``I believe the state cannot survive without that revenue,'' DeShazor said.

Others disagreed. ``Not only do I believe this tax would be killed forever, but I don't believe that we need to replace one dime of it because I think it will be naturally replaced as businesses grow and flourish,'' Hoogendyk said.

I wonder whether politicians who want to invest our money would let the government invest their own money.

Check out the new website of the taxpayers association.