Legislators that support the Financial Autonomy Act in its current form should be ashamed of themselves for bad leadership. How can legislators exempt their income from taxation while expecting ordinary citizens to pay taxes? What kind of message does that send to the ordinary citizen? Also the argument by some legislators that it’s the way things are done in Liberia is self-serving at best. The way things were done in Liberia brought about a horrific war that killed tens of thousands. This is a new Liberia and everyone has to pay their fair share of taxes, officials included. The legislators are employees of government and if other government employees are required to pay income taxes, so should they. I agree that the Legislature should have financial independence so as to mitigate undue influence by the executive, but the tax exempt provision sends a very bad message to the entire society and citizens should resist this blatant act of exploitation.

Phil George
Pgeorge7@cox.net

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