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Show ) DOES MAIN STREET "MAKE" A COMMUNITY? Last week we published a Letter to the Editor from City Councilman Wes Bolton, taking Main Street to task for "expecting constant contributions from the taxpayers tax-payers to stimulate their (business) bank accounts." In other parts of his letter Mr. Bolton referred to growth and progress being "crammed down the throats of the voters and taxpayers." Later, we expressed the opinion to Mr. Bolton that the businessmen of a community "make" that community. His answer was "They think they do . . . thats why they want to run it." J On the Milford City Council are three railroad employees, em-ployees, one businessman, and one professional man, and the mayor is a school teacher. Is Main Street "running" Milford"? The off-Main Street residents pay taxes on their homes. Period. The businessmen Main Street also pay taxes on their homes. They pay taxes on their business busi-ness property ; on their inventories ; on the equipment and fixtures; they have a very large investment in merchandise mer-chandise and equipment so they can offer the off-Main Street residents the needed goods and services that all communities must have; they have a heavy payroll, furnishing fur-nishing a livelihood for many of the residents including wives of the railroad and other employees; also, they pay one-half the social security tax for their employees, all of the unemployment compensation tax, all of the industrial accident insurance tax; they also pay business licenses to the city; they pay a higher rate than off-Main Street residents res-idents for their telephone service, a higher rate for their electric power, a higher rate for their city water; and every time a local organization wants to raise funds for one of their local projects their first fund-raising activity activ-ity is to "make Main Street" and tap the merchants for a few bucks apiece. We quote from a recent Salt Lake Tribune editorial: "There can be no substitution for private business as a mainstay in the state's tax structure" "The state is not going to develop needed economic muscle by sitting and waiting. Unless Utah can bring in new payrolls the already heavy tax burden is going to become heavier. It could even reach the point where the natives begin moving out.' Substitute "Milford" for "Utah" in the above and lead it over again. The merchants on Main Street devote many dollars (not tax dollars) and many, many hours of time and great effort to trying to bring more business, more industry, in-dustry, more tax-paying enterprises to our community. The men on Main Street want Milford to grow, to progress, pro-gress, to move forward, not backward. Where communities communi-ties are concerned, there is no 'status quo" ... we progress, pro-gress, or we slide backward and stagnate. When a community com-munity stops growing, it's on its way back to the era of the crossroads country store, with the males sitting around the cracker barrel aiming streams of tobacco juice at the pot-bellied stove while they 'cuss the gov'ment." It would seem, from City Councilman Bolton's objection ob-jection to Main Street's desire for growth and progress, that maybe that's what he has in mind for Milford. |