Dear Mr. Gilmore: Thank

Dear Mr. Gilmore: Thank

you very much for your Sept. 24 letter which asks, “Do you agree with my plan to abolish the personal property tax on cars and trucks?”

My answer: probably not. As they say, “the devil is in the details,” and I haven’t seen the details.

But, my gut feeling is that getting rid of the property tax on cars and trucks cannot help but lead to higher taxes on real property in rural counties like mine — and that would be a real disaster.

Please don’t read my answer wrong. I will agree with you that Virginia’s property tax system is totally unfair — a relic of our agrarian past. But the most unfair property tax is the tax on real estate.

The real estate tax is a wealth tax, pure and simple, and it is unfair because we don’t tax other forms of wealth equally.

I pay an annual property tax on my farm — but should I convert my farm into some other form of wealth (bank account, mutual funds, gold, etc.) I would pay no property tax on my replacement asset. Why don’t you campaign to abolish the real property tax?

Actually, the property tax on cars may be relatively • equitable. Almost all Virginians own cars, what they own is some measure of ability to pay, and they can’t practicably beat the tax by buying some other form of transportation such as a horse or bicycle.

Frankly, I think both you and Donald Beyer have taken the property tax issue out of its proper context and are forcing Virginia citizens to debate the wrong question. The right question is: What is the most equitable means of funding Virginia local governments in the 21st Century?

ROBERT T. DENNIS

Flint Hill