The following letter to the editor by Gila County Libertarian Party Secretary/Treasurer Larry Hoffenberg was published in the Payson Roundup on February 10, 2022.

To the Editor,

The Gila County Libertarian Party would like to weigh in on the Roundup’s January 11th above-the-fold top story titled “If it’s not the grocery tax, it’ll be another tax.” The article contained several key errors, misleading statements and omissions.

1. The headline implies that if the grocery tax is repealed, the town council must replace it with another tax. Is that written somewhere in the town charter? Breaking news!: Maybe, just maybe, the town can find a way to become more efficient and effective in how it performs its services, Maybe, just maybe, the citizens of Payson might actually prefer a lower level of services in exchange for lower taxes. Has anyone asked the taxpayers?

For the fiscal year 2021-2022, the town council approved a total budget of $49,500,000, a whopping FIFTEEN percent increase over the prior year. Even just looking at general operating expenses, spending is set to increase by 9 percent How many taxpayers got a 9% pay raise in 2021? Beyond the Town Manager, not many.

2. There isn’t much of anything left in America that isn’t already taxed, and taxed up the wazoo at that. Here is a partial list of what is currently taxed in America, Arizona, Gila County and the Town of Payson:

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Sales Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

Of course not all of the above applies to everyone all the time, but add it all up, the average American pays well over 50% of his or her income in taxes every year. Clearly, Paysonians are not under-taxed.

And all of this excludes “the cruelest tax of them all,” hidden inflation. The purchasing power of Americans’ income and life savings is being “taxed” away every year by anywhere from 8% to 12%, depending on how inflation is measured and defined.

3. The sub-headline of the article “Payson council learns cost of eliminating food tax” (emphasis added) demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of accounting, finance and budgeting principles, namely the difference between revenues and costs (expenses). Revenue is money coming in, costs are monies paid out. They are two fundamentally and independent measures. They are on opposite sides of a financial statement.

A reduction in revenue, as would happen if the food tax were eliminated, is not a “cost.” A reduction in revenue is just that, a reduction in money coming in. It is totally independent of costs, that is monies the town has to pay out. Sure, the town budget must balance, but that does not mean that expenses cannot be reduced to match the reduced revenue.

4. The article cites the fact that 27 out of 30 other municipalities in Arizona impose a tax on food. Fine. But is that really a moral and equitable justification for Payson to tax food? Perhaps this is a golden opportunity for Payson to do the right thing, to be a leader instead of a follower, and discontinue the grocery tax.

5. A grocery tax is one of the most regressive and repressive taxes ever conceived. Obviously, food is a necessity and lower income people pay a much higher proportion of their income on food than do more affluent people. Where’s the equity and justice in that?

A grocery tax for Payson? Libertarians don’t only say “no,” we say HELL NO!
Larry Hoffenberg
Secretary/Treasurer – Gila County Libertarian Party

Home

By Bruce Wales,
First Vice Chairman, Gila County LP

 

They don’t have to want to buy my ugly truck!
They don’t even have to tell me why!
Just reminding them our country’s gov’ment sucks!
And that the Libertarians are standing by!

They don’t have to want to swallow what they’re fed!
They don’t even have to argufy!
Long’s they know our country’s gov’ment sucks!
And that there’s Libertarians standing by!

They don’t have to rhyme with simple poetry!
They don’t even have to write out why!
Long’s they know our country’s gov’ment sucks!
They can help the Libertarians standing by!

 

The following letter to the editor by Gila County Libertarian Party Secretary/Treasurer Larry Hoffenberg was published in the Payson Roundup on September 18, 2018. The letter was also picked up by the national Libertarian Party and tweeted out to 127,000+ followers on September 19, 2018.

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To the Editor:

In response to reader K Meszar’s letter “We need a vibrant two-party system,” the Gila County Libertarian Party strongly disagrees.

The U.S. is literally the only democratic republic around the world with a two-party system. Every other democracy has four to six and more “approved” political parties. For example, Sweden held their elections last week, and members of eight different parties were elected to parliament. eight!

By many measures, the two-party system in the U.S. has been an abject failure over the last 75 or so years. Democrat and Republican politicians, hand in hand, have run up $21 trillion in official national debt plus another $200 trillion in very real but unfunded liabilities.

Democrat and Republican politicians, hand in hand, have led the U.S. into nearly endless unconstitutional undeclared wars (“military actions”) since the end of World War II, costing the lives of hundreds of thousands of American armed forces. On and on.

It is not a coincidence that the U.S., with its two-party state, has the lowest voter turnout rate of any democratic country. A lack of choice at the ballot is the primary reason. People vote for “Neither Of The Above” by staying home and not voting at all.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were two of the most disliked and untrustworthy presidential candidates in U.S. history. That in and of itself was enough to discourage thousands of voters in Arizona and millions across the U.S. from voting for state and local candidates as well.

This lack of choice and competition is not an accident. Ballot access laws passed hand in hand by Democrat and Republican politicians require complicated, onerous, and expensive obstacles for candidates of other political parties to overcome just to get on the ballot each election. Due to these obstacles, not a single candidate other than Democrats and Republicans will be on the statewide ballot in Arizona this November.

Of course those same ballot access laws give Democrat and Republican politicians a free pass in terms of essentially zero legal requirements to get on the ballot.

If the media such as the Roundup want to encourage more people to vote and participate in our democracy, you can encourage them to learn that the Democrat and Republican parties are not enshrined anywhere in the U.S. Constitution.

Unbeknownst to many Americans, there are a multitude of other choices for voters: America’s third largest political party, the Libertarian Party. Or the fourth largest party, the Greens. Or the fifth largest party, the Constitution Party. On and on all the way down the line to party No. 76. the good old Prohibition Party.

A truly informed electorate with more than a binary choice of Donkey vs. Elephant is America’s best and most powerful asset.

Larry Hoffenberg,
Secretary, Gila County Libertarian Party