Editor:
Joel Koury feebly attempts to channel Oliver Wendall Holmes while trying to convince us to pay even more taxes than the already excessive tax burden we now pay ("Protect public education," Letters to the Editor, Oct. 31).
Holmes never had to pay the kind of taxes we now do in California, so I doubt he would have been so willing to characterize them as the price we must pay.
California has the highest sales tax in the nation, we are tied with another state for the highest gasoline tax in the nation, California's income tax rate is the second highest in the nation, and California is near the top in the nation in property tax.
Just take a look at your Santa Monica property tax bill and try and figure out just how many extra local taxes and bonds we are already paying to support local schools and Santa Monica College, along with the other local special interest taxes.
Special interest groups like the public employee unions are the ones who propose, support and bankroll all these extra tax increase measures. It's not to help our school children, but to pay for high salaries and outrageous pension obligations.
We do not need to pay any more taxes. We already pay more than our fair share. No doubt Justice Holmes would concur.
George Kaplan
Santa Monica
