Carnes: Not a proper use of tax dollars
As an elected member of the Avon Town Council back in the mid-90s, I was an outspoken critic of government misuse of tax dollars.
Still am.
At that time it was concerning tax dollars being used to fund local organizations that “just happened” to include family members of council members, but more importantly, six-figure art projects to “pretty up” the town.
While funding a local Scout troop and decorating the new roundabouts were both worthwhile endeavors to pursue with private money, funding either with tax dollars is not the reason Avon locals paid an extra 4% when buying a pack of underwear at Walmart.
I lost the battle, but the war of how governments spend the tax dollars we are legally forced to pay is endless, and even more flagrant when federal governments lend those tax dollars to a naive 18-year-old fresh out of high school who has been told by every adult in their life they wouldn’t amount to anything if they didn’t go to college.
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Loaning $100,000 in anticipation that he or she would graduate in four years and begin paying the loan back with interest is not an action any banker would ever consider, but our federal government has been doing it for decades.
And now we find that same government deciding, “Meh, you don’t have to pay it back, just promise to make wiser financial decisions in the future and, oh, while you’re at it, vote blue this November.”
Too cynical?
Perhaps, but don’t get me wrong, I’m not bothered that some are receiving debt relief, especially those whose $100K debt has ballooned to $125K although they’ve never missed a minimum payment in 20 years.
I am bothered that tax dollars were used to fund extremely high-risk loans at even higher interest rates in the first place, forcing graduates into the kind of debt usually reserved for mortgage payments, thus allowing higher education institutions to raise costs for attending to astronomical levels.
But then again, this whole mess is sort of the American way, right?
Mortgage, bank and auto industry bailouts, billions in annual subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, the 2017 $1.7 trillion dollar tax break primarily used for stock buybacks, and how about the PPP loans to help businesses hurt during the pandemic?
Did you know at least $7.5 million of your tax dollars were used for PPP loans right here in Happy Valley, and they were all forgiven? Yep, and that’s just the first hundred on the list under zip code 81620. Some even had multiple loans, all forgiven, all provided by our tax dollars.
Bartenders, servers, cooks, shop clerks, lifties, ski instructors, construction workers and every other American worker who never went to college is paying for this new handout with their taxes.
Sure, life’s not always fair, but the person who just made their last school loan payment a few weeks ago on Aug. 1 and the other who just signed for a school loan on the same day both have a damn good reason to be upset.
The hypocrisy from both political sides is predictably appalling, yet the fact remains that loaning tax dollars should not be a function of government.
What’s next, someone declaring their mortgage identifies as a student loan?
Anyway, the morals behind this debt forgiveness are perhaps to be applauded for the right reasons, but the ethics of using tax dollars to do so, however, not so much.
Richard Carnes, of Avon, writes weekly. He can be reached at poor@vail.net.
