Those who seek cuts in taxes should realize that those taxes pay for many things we need: policemen, firemen, school upkeep, teacher salaries, MaineCare (health needs of the poor), aid for poor mothers and children, aid for rent payment, road repairs, snowplowing, etc. Therefore, it taxes were taken away we’d have to go without all of the above.

What needs to be addressed are cases of fraud. Are some folks claiming poverty, yet live in luxury? Are some able to work, yet collect? That is a form of stealing, and it places a burden on everyone who pays taxes to support programs for the needy.

Before people qualify for programs for the needy, perhaps they could sell some of their possessions to pay bills, rather than collect from the city or state. If they refuse to do so, they would not qualify as being needy.

In Rhode Island, people have to sell their houses to live in a city project; sell their car to pay bills; work at city jobs in order to get welfare money. If one was really needy, he or she had to comply or go seek a job elsewhere.

I bet that cuts taxes and fraud.

Gabrielle De Moras, Lewiston