Am I hearing some double talk from Gov. Sam Brownback? One side of his face is saying, “I will cut your taxes by eliminating the personal income tax.” The other side says that in the mean time, “I will increase your taxes by eliminating some deductions.”

If the income tax is eliminated, dropping these deductions will provide only short term relief and at a time when the common people don’t need any more taxes.

You ask — is eliminating the deductions a tax? Yes. That will mean in effect these deductions will now be taxed. Anything we pay that goes to the government, including local entities, is a tax.

They may call it a utility franchise fee, such as the one they charge the cable company, but this “fee” goes to the government and is passed on to the cable customers and thus is a tax on us.

Sure they say some of these are “user” fees, but try not using it to avoid the fee. Drop your phone, mine is $1.99 per month. Drop your cable TV service, mine is $1.87 per month. Park your car, gas tax is very large number.

I know Topeka needs more funds, but they don’t need to try to sneak it past us with smiles up front while their fingers are picking our pockets behind our backs. Cut spending somewhere or raise the income tax or sales tax up front instead of trying to deceive us.