Letters: Readers discuss KC’s tax mess, getting rid of expired drugs and Medicare

Tax structure

In all the commotion surrounding the horrendous mess that is the Jackson County property reassessment, I’ve seen precious little about the tax structure itself. Tax policy is the most important tool we have to affect public policy. And while many are giving lip service to concerns about gentrification, I see no action by our elected officials to fight it with tax policy.

I support accurate property valuation — which we don’t have — but poor people and individual low-cost housing owners are being priced out of the market by rising property taxation, leading to loss of home ownership and affordable rent.

This could be reasonably and equitably addressed with credits and incentives, but it requires energy and intention to repair an outdated system. Kansas City already has a very regressive tax structure with its first-dollar earnings tax and high sales taxes.

Where is the leadership to prevent this property-tax assessment and collection system from wreaking even greater havoc on low- and middle-income families?

- Oneta Templeton, Kansas City

Nowhere to pitch

Recently, I found expired medicines that I didn’t want to throw into the trash. I went online and read that some Walgreens had drop boxes for expired medicines.

I am trying to be a responsible citizen, so I stopped by my local Walgreens and checked. It didn’t have a drop box, but employees sent me to the fire department.

The fire department didn’t have one, but someone said the police department had a drop-off box.

But when I went to the police department, no luck again. The police suggested St. Luke’s East Hospital.

So I drove to St. Luke’s, and no drop-off box for expired medications. The ladies at the desk said their emergency room used to have one but didn’t anymore. They suggested the Missouri Department of Transportation.

I didn’t think that was a good suggestion, but I really wanted to get rid of the old drugs. So I went to MoDOT. Guess what? It doesn’t accept them either.

So I am home now, and I still have my old pills.

- Diane Brown, Kansas City

Biden’s wisdom

Thank goodness for the decidedly low-key and brilliant House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn from South Carolina for saying what most of us instinctively knew heading into last weekend’s South Carolina primary: Joe Biden is a good and gracious man whom most Americans relate to, and who — perhaps more important — can relate to most Americans.

I worked as counsel to Congressman Clyburn in the late 1990s in Washington. Like our own Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt and former President Harry Truman, Clyburn is a thoughtful student of history who takes his responsibilities seriously and has always been mindful of the lessons of history as he carries out his duties as a public servant.

I know Clyburn well. He knows Biden well. And history tells me that after all the former vice president has been through over the course of his professional and personal life, he knows us better than any prospective president has since our own man from Missouri took center stage back in 1945.

Let’s vote for Joe Biden this Tuesday, and let’s bring a dose of grace, dignity and empathy back to the White House in November.

- Adam P. Sachs, Kansas City

Cost realities

Voters have an opportunity to cast votes for presidential candidates with very different solutions to the American health care crisis. Poll after poll show that most voters’ top priority in this election is the cost of health care. This makes sense, given that American health care costs twice that of nations with universal care, while health insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital companies reap huge profits.

The Affordable Care Act included many important improvements, but sidestepped the fundamental drivers of our crisis. Prescription drug coverage through Medicare Part D has been a bonanza for Big Pharma, but it included no provisions for reining in costs and profits.

At a time when 68,000 American lives are lost every year from a lack of health care, we can no longer support outrageous corporate profits over people. Opponents of “Medicare for all” ask how we can afford it. A recent study in The Lancet revealed that such a program would reduce costs by 13%.

We can’t afford our current wasteful system of overhead, profit and greed. Only universal coverage can ensure that the United States doesn’t continue to rank dead last among 17 industrialized nations in life expectancy and other health outcomes.

- Elizabeth Andes, Chair, Physicians for a National Health Program, Kansas City Metro Chapter, Raytown

This story was originally published March 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM.