Property owners carrying the load

I read with interest the editorial "Time for cake? Thank you for bringing attention to the hardships of the property-owning taxpayers.

With one out of 10 mortgages in foreclosure, we are suffering with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation. With the loss of jobs, high unemployment, rising food prices, devastating gasoline prices, all of us on incomes that don't keep up, and many people on fixed incomes that are constantly diminishing, we need to change our taxing policies.

We can no longer rely on property owners to pay all the bills. Government and public entities need to seek funds elsewhere and involve the entire community instead of continuing to overtax the smallest group of local taxpayers.

Property owners have, for decades, paid for everyone and now it is past time for all of us involved in local government and the community to stand up for them and change this. And we can if we will.

We need to change this knee-jerk response of always billing the property owner, and spread the burden around to lessen individual assessment. There are always alternatives to property taxes, and we must explore them. We must pressure our elected officials who make these decisions to do so.

The Lima News said in the editorial "let them eat cake," but this is no joke. Property owners are finding it harder every day to pay the bills for everybody else and still buy groceries.