Need to Explore a ‘Fair Tax’

To The Editor:
Gov. Christie has had the courage to insert a note of realism into state finances by taking on previously-sacred items in the budget. But our elected representatives need to come up with a completely new system for funding public services. Have they ever considered eliminating all current forms of taxation in favor of a “fair tax?”
Nationally, a fair tax movement is slowly gaining speed. But there’s no reason why it can’t also work in the states. The states are lauded for being laboratories’ for devising new ways to tackle environmental, drug policy, and health care issues. But they seem to be blind to funding government services with anything but taxes on income, sales, and property.
The Fair Tax bills in Congress (HR 25 and S296) propose to do away with all income taxation in favor of one consumption tax on all new goods and services. At the state level, a fair tax could do the same, plus absorb the existing sales and other excise taxes as well as property taxes.
A fair tax would guarantee that no family would pay taxes on spending up to the poverty level. It would also tap into the ill-gotten gains of criminals and all black-market and off-the-books income.
The governor and legislature, Democrats and Republicans should at least explore a fair tax as a way to tackle the complaint that our taxes are too high compared with the number and quality of services government provides.
ANDREW WEBB
Wildwood Crest