Editor, Times-Union: Indiana needs new infrastructure. As usual, the first place our legislators look is to the poor and working class asking for more taxes and ridiculous fees. Obviously, this must be just dandy with most taxpayers as they keep giving a super majority to one party. Just for "funsies," let's look outside the box for a bit. Indiana is just one of a handful of states that has an individual income flat tax rate. This means that the CEO of Wellpoint who makes an eight-figure salary pays the same tax rate as a senior citizen struggling to make ends meet. This is, in other words, shifting the tax burden from the rich to those that can least afford it. I have trouble seeing the fairness in this. Perhaps Indiana should leap ahead 50 years and have different brackets for different incomes. Indiana just completed a four-year phase down on its corporate tax rate, only to be followed by yet more corporate tax rate cuts, the last to be completed in 2022. As Carrier and Ford were set to head for Mexico, one might extrapolate that tax rates and regulations have nothing to do with job loss, that the reason, in fact, is low wages. Slave labor is what businesses want. So let's end the tax cuts nonsense. Former Gov. Mike Pence obviously thinks we taxpayers have deep pockets as he handed out a 2 percent to 4 percent pay increase to all state employees before departing for the big time. Our devoted local public servants, the county council, handed out a 2 percent pay raise to county employees, after slamming us with a wheel tax. Great job, guys. My raise this year was $3 per month, yet our state and county governments expect those that can least afford it to foot the bill for their profligacy. Perhaps they should look somewhere else, we're tapped out. Our state government sold the toll road, maybe they should find more stuff to sell. Maybe hang a price tag on the governor's mansion and state house since 75 percent of its inhabitants are for sale. I couldn't help but notice that the Farm Bureau is hosting an event for the local politicians. I'm sure that has nothing to do with Farm Bureau ruling ag legislation. My poor old back is weary "bigly" from carrying the load of the rich and corporations for so many years. I see no end in sight. Janet Collins Etna Green, via email
