Letter: Tri-Cities should be last place in America to complain about taxation

If every depressed community in America had a worthless piece of contaminated real estate nearby, like Hanford, this nation’s jobs and economic inequity problems could be solved in a heartbeat.

The Tri-Cities exemplifies the solution — all you have to do is convince the government that you are entitled to taxpayer largesse to fix your grossly exaggerated problem, while asserting that communities with poisoned drinking water or other crumbling or outdated infrastructure should have to fend for themselves.

There are two primary reasons why this community has no legitimate claim to $2 billion per year of taxpayer beneficence. First, we have no intention of returning the land, after cleanup, to the farmers and Native Americans from whom it was stolen. Second, which would take much more than 200 words to explain properly, the extent of cleanup goes far beyond the requirements for protection of health and safety of near-term or future generations. Retrieval and vitrification? Gimme a break.

The Tri-Cities should be the last place in America to complain about taxation; we are takers, not givers. Infrastructure renewal/upgrade and education focused on hundreds of depressed communities, supported by fair and sufficient taxation, is the solution. Make America even greater.

This story was originally published May 29, 2016 at 5:36 AM with the headline "Letter: Tri-Cities should be last place in America to complain about taxation."