Business Taxes

Daryl Cagle (“Taxing Creativity Is a Mistake,” Aug. 24.) is wrong in stating that it’s in the city’s self-interest to exempt home-based artists and writers from municipal tax laws, that there is something special about his constituency that is “deserving of protection.” Government has never exempted income earned through creativity and it shouldn’t attempt to now. Doing so could make the city vulnerable to persuasive “me too” legal challenges by the thousands of individuals whose work is also the product of creativity: software and hardware designers, computer programmers, engineers and consultants. Many of these individuals operate home-based businesses; why shouldn’t they be given the same exemption?

This is nothing more than another pork-barrel proposal, with the losses resulting from the City Council’s generosity being passed on to the rest of us in the form of increased business taxes.

MONIQUE BRYHER

Tarzana