The irony presented on the Jan. 13 opinion page was just too hard to resist.

For the third time in print, Waterville’s former mayor, Karen Heck, in a column headlined “Politics on the local level more about relationships than ideology,” explained, or rationalized, why she endorsed Nick Isgro for mayor.

What she left out is their shared opinion that Waterville’s current situation with an overload of tax-exempt property is just fine. It should not even be talked about. She has never said that, but she should be honest enough to make note of it.

In the same issue, the governor targets high value tax-exempts as a source of revenue. Of course, this would make some champions of the current status tremble.

I know the governor’s plan is doomed to fail, and I expect that he knows that too. It seems to me it is all a screen for his main objective, getting rid of the income tax. That is a primary goal of the far right throughout the country. Their desire is for every state to follow the lead of Mississippi — lots of poor with no unions, no worker rights, the lingering shadow of Jim Crow and more.

The income tax is progressive; sales and property taxes are not. Tax fairness and income distribution are central to being “progressive.” People with less should never be paying the way of those with more.

Stephen Aucoin

Waterville

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