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December 10, 2007

Voters: Government needs to work to control taxes

Margo Sullivan

Editor's note: This is the 11th in a series of stories examining the top issues of concern for The Eagle-Tribune's 154 voters participating in the presidential campaign coverage project. To view the previous stories, go to www.eagletribune.com, and click on "On the Issues."

George H. W. Bush kept his message on taxes simple when he ran for president in 1988.

"Read my lips," Bush said. "No new taxes."

But this is 2007. Bush's failure to keep his campaign promise is history. For the most part, the 2008 hopefuls are saying they will lower taxes and their opponents will raise them. But that's as simple as it gets.

Yet, voters surveyed by The Eagle-Tribune in 16 Southern New Hampshire towns who ranked taxes as the top campaign issue say the complexity is OK. They wouldn't believe any candidate who claimed to have found the silver bullet for tax reform.

"I'd probably mistrust a candidate who tried to sum up (his) feelings on taxes in a 30-second sound bite," said Peter Rayno, a Salem bank vice president. "Voters need to put in the time to find out where their candidate stands."

Rayno, 46, believes government should keep taxes as low as possible, and put money back in the pockets of families and businesses.

"When businesses and families spend, that is good for the economy in the long run," he said.

If he were in the same room with the candidates, Rayno would ask two questions | their opinion of a flat tax, something Rayno doesn't necessarily support, and the marriage tax. That one, he said, has to go away.

Michael Petrilli, 57, a Salem marketing professional, thinks government spends too much money and term limits for Congress might solve some of the abuses. Why, for example, are oil companies receiving subsidies if they're not looking for oil, Petrilli asks. He thinks taxes should be cut and income taxes should be abolished.

He'd replace them with a 5 percent sales tax, which would apply to every purchase except a first home.

"We have to learn to live within our budget," he said. "We'd all be bankrupt if every household lived the way the federal government lives."

Roland Maher of Salem, 51, an administrator in higher education, thinks voters should study up on the issues, but he would focus on the link between spending and taxation.

If the Iraq war continues and the nation also wants to support universal health care, it's only a matter of time before taxes will have to go up, he said.

"We have to do something with spending," he said. "All we're doing is putting the burden off to future generations."

Maher is against the death tax and taxes on savings. That's not only double-taxation, but also a disincentive to save, he said. But he agrees with taxing the ultra-rich a bit more to deal with the deficit. Even a billionaire like Warren Buffett is saying the system isn't fair to the middle class and the wealthy should contribute more, Maher said.

Christopher Goodnow, 44, a Salem real estate consultant, rejects complaints about unfairness in the tax code. He also feels people need to do their homework on taxes, because common sense will not help assess a candidate's tax strategy.

"It's counterintuitive to say tax cuts generate more revenue (for the government)," Goodnow said. "That doesn't sound right to a layman's perspective."

Although Goodnow does not want to use the "B-word," he believes the Bush tax cuts should continue and not expire.

"They've been phenomenally successful," he said. "The empirical evidence is overwhelming."

Goodnow said taxes are not about fairness.

"They're mixing these tax cuts up with fairness, but the cause of income inequality is education-based," he said.

People's fortunes depend on whether they stayed in school and positioned themselves to take advantage of opportunities, he said.

Maurice Gramble, 48, a Sandown business manager, thinks taxes are unfair, because the wealthy pay more for the same services that the middle class and poor receive. He has a nice house and pays $10,000 in annual property taxes, he said. If it costs the local government the same money to pick up his garbage as to collect anyone else's, why should he pay more taxes?

Also, he went to school and worked hard to attain his high-paying job, he said. Maybe the guy next door was satisfied with just getting by.

A national sales tax would be fairer, because people would pay based on the amount they use, he said. He also thinks the next president should be a businessman, run the government like a company and keep taxes low. Finally, Gramble does think it's easy to understand taxes.

"It seems so simple," he said. "If you take a dollar out of each hour everybody worked, that's one dollar that's not going to be in the economy. I don't know how much more simple you can make it. You're taking money out of the economy. It's really common sense."

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