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Getting heavy

Your "Heavy Burden" (August 19) was a great article, and the accompanying graphic ("Beantown Counters") was neat. The property-tax burden in Boston is indeed getting far too heavy. Legislators need to pay attention to your message, rethink the whole range of the tax structure, make some courageous decisions, and actually do something about it. One alarming statistic you cite is that "more than 50 percent of property in the city of Boston . . . is tax exempt." And we know tax-exempt entities are expanding. They are a positive factor in the community, to be sure, but residents and businesses can't keep paying their share of city/state services. If they can't or won't pay substantially more of their share, they collectively should be limited to a fixed percentage of the tax base — maybe 50 percent.

DON CARLSON
BOSTON