Blast from The Past: Stop Taxing Books!

I've had a lot of letters published in various newspapers over the years, and once in a while I'll share one here.  While some of my letters address matters of limited interest that become antiquated with time, there are quite a few that remain relevant.  Here's one issue I still feel strongly about, and it isn't being remedied.  I wrote this letter when I was 18, and I'll still feel the same about the issue when I'm 80!

June 25, 1998  Thursday

I went to the book store the other day and was disturbed to find out that there is now a tax on books.  It had been a while since I purchased a book, due to the high price of new books these days, but I hardly expected this.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I believe that taxing reading material of any kind is wrong.  It's bad enough that the price of paperbacks has doubled in the past five years.  We don't need to be charged an extra six percent.

Taxing books is like penalizing people for reading.  You wouldn't want to be taxed for speaking, would you?

This tax is imposed with total disrespect for the first amendment.  I hope that our state officials realize this and choose to do the right thing by removing this tax.

[This tax is still imposed on the people of Maine.]