Editor:

I am writing to thank you for running reporter Ben Neary's article on plunging sales tax revenues on your front page of the July 9 edition.

Several years ago I was a member of the state's Revenue Committee in Cheyenne. We were presented for the 10th year in a row with the bill to eliminate sales tax from food. Axe The Tax, remember that one? At that time the energy boom was still strong and state revenues were copious. Much pressure was applied to the Revenue Committee to eliminate sales tax from food.

The Revenue Committee wisely forwarded an alternative bill which offered a rebate to food tax payers, keeping food tax in place while offering relief to all who would apply. Axe The Tax died for the 10th time in a row. Subsequent politics intervened and proponents of Axe The Tax campaigned viciously and got their way through political back channels. They were reprimanded on the House Floor by the Revenue chairman for their back channel shenanigans; the record is there for all to see. Myself and four other Revenue Committee members were smeared for killing the food tax bill in committee.

Neary's article is another example of why the Revenue Committee correctly did what it did. This state has now lost huge sales tax revenues from the sale of other goods. Communities are struggling to make ends meet. We told you so back then. Food is sold in mostly the same quantities regardless of good times or bad. Sales of discretionary items suffer during times of economic downturn.

If only cooler heads had prevailed in 2006, this state's economic woes would be dampened. We threw away $98 million in potential sales tax revenue as a result of some certain individuals' ego and political wrangling, revenues that will never be recoverable. No politician will ever survive replacing a tax that was removed. Now the chickens are coming home to roost, as they say.

My advice to all who got carried away in the food tax firestorm of 2006 is to be more diligent about your politics from now on. In the future it will behoove the communities, the state, and the country if people will not vote on the basis of their emotions; rather sane, reasonable politics.

GERALD GAY, Casper