For what seems like a year and a half, I’ve been hearing that a Publix store is going to open (location is irrelevant). For that year and a half, I was all for it. I like Publix stores mainly because of the selection.

What I don’t like, in the case of Publix opening in my town, is how and why it’s happening.

The words recently used in an article here for The Advertiser Gleam were “Tax Abatement”.

If you have access to the internet, or even a phone book to call a CPA, you can look it up and discover that this is a significant reduction in tax liability.

It’s still known as an ‘Incentive’, if memory serves.

I have a question for all the small business owners in Guntersville (or even the surrounding county):

How many of you were given a tax abatement for starting your business here, or were given one for keeping it here?

I have a strong suspicion that the answer is “Never”.

Then, why is it okay that a corporation which is more than financially capable of paying its taxes no longer being held responsible? Does this not place added liability on all of you, as local business owners and taxpayers?

To me, that’s like giving a leg up to someone with both feet firmly planted on your backs and as a former business owner, as well as someone who helped a few get theirs started, it makes no good or clear logical sense to me.

I assume that most of you local business owners provide a living wage to your employees (or so I hope), while the corporation that just fleeced you will be paying its employees barely above minimum wage.

I’m not sure how many of you have ever had the pleasure of trying to pay your bills and taxes on minimum wage, but I speak from experience in saying that without help, it’s all but impossible.

Expand this particular ‘incentive’ of tax abatement across many other businesses that used it, and guess why your rates are so high?

Hasn’t Walmart already done this? What about Lowe’s?

I keep hearing complaints on how the current President has caused tax rates for many a business to go up, and I’m not going to argue that point.

But, what about the times when many of the local business owners (and this could be anywhere in America) repeatedly allow these ‘incentives’ to add to everyone’s total over the course of ten or even twenty years? If you allow it to keep happening, how is that not your fault?

On the possibility that the whole argument here sounds familiar to many of you, it should. These are the same fundamentals used when speaking out against welfare.

You can spray air freshner on trash, but that only upgrades it to ‘scented garbage’.

How sad that there are not enough small business owners and taxpayers in this town, or anywhere in this country, who are interested enough in putting a stop to this anytime soon.

Good luck, and don’t forget to break out your checkbooks.

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