Letters: Grateful for all the essential workers; ‘Tax holiday’ needed for COVID-19 recovery

Grateful for all the essential workers

Thank you, CDT, for the availability of your online service. I will remember this and definitely subscribe when money is not so tight.

Although I also appreciate the first responders and medical professionals, we should not forget the hard working people who are risking their lives everyday in jobs our governor deemed essential. I want to especially thank the grocery store workers who are rising far above the expected level of their occupation serving everyone and anyone who shops in their store. Please remember to treat them with kindness, patience and respect during this crisis and for ever after.

‘Tax holiday’ needed for COVID-19 recovery

While the government talks about actions needed to help people during this crisis, I haven’t heard a word about property tax relief.

For home owners and businesses alike, real estate taxes are one of the largest payments to be made each year.

Real estate taxes are particularly onerous for businesses that have lost all the revenue needed to pay the tax bill.

I spoke with my state representative and learned that the state is considering postponing real estate tax payments until later in the year. But as I told him, a postponement is simply not good enough. If wages or business revenues are lost, they are likely lost forever. Postponement of taxes won’t make it easier to pay the bill. I suggested that what’s also needed is a real estate tax holiday, or tax forgiveness, during Pennsylvania’s mandated lockdown period, which started March 20. For example, assume an annual combined property tax bill (i.e., county, local and school district) of $3,000 and shutdown lasting 60 days. The amount of the tax to be forgiven, i.e., not required to be paid, is $493.

The cut would benefit all taxpayers and should be partially offset by reduced utility, maintenance and safety expenses at closed government facilities and schools. Furthermore, nonessential municipal programs could be cut and school closures should realize significant savings in student transportation costs.

Together we can make the tax holiday a reality. Call your state representative today.

No reason not to wear masks in public

I just want to say thank you to those people who are now following the governor’s dictum that we wear masks when outside the home. Conversely, I am annoyed by the majority of people I am encountering, certainly in the Weis Markets and the Sheetz convenience stores, who wear no masks at all; these seem to be the same people who think a 6-foot buffer equates to only 6 inches for them. They are being irresponsible citizens (at the very least) because masks are not designed to protect the wearer, they are designed to protect everyone else from anything the person in the mask might have.

So, to those who think a mask is too uncomfortable, or not attractive enough, or who have no personal fear for their own health, or any other reasons I’ve heard, these are not excuses sufficient for you to endanger others by your lack of concern. This is not making a political remark by whether you do or not, this is not about how you “represent” your masculinity, it is strictly about protecting the public from further infections and deaths. Masks can be made of simple scarfs if you don’t have another type available. As nurses, we know how hard and heartbreaking it has been for all trying to care for people with this incredibly infectious illness. Surely everyone can do their small part in prevention of further suffering.