I do believe we have another route for helping retirees, and that is to freeze property taxes and to provide tax-exempt goods and services to retirees. For instance the property tax is an issue Tennessee citizens has voted for and are waiting for implementation, and goods and services can be paid for with a retiree card similar to the state welfare card. I can reduce my cost of goods and services by 35% if only my documentation can be used to show what goods and services were sold to a retiree for a tax deduction on goods and labor used there. Something like a retiree state I.D. that would allow me to collect information for tax-exempt status. One example would be a gallon of milk. The retiree was paying 24 cents tax for a gallon of milk but today they are paying 50 cents for the same gallon. No one living on a retirement plan paid for in the 20th Century can with stand the cost and tax increases. With increased prices our government is seeing increased collections but goods are moving off the shelf slower, and that has hurt everyone.

I do hope our retirees have the income to stay in Oak Ridge, but it doesn’t seem like the government wants to stop taxing them after 50+ years of paying into taxes.