ECONOMICS 4316/7316 Assignment: Letter to Editor
ASSIGNMENT: Letter to the Editor
The State of Kansas includes groceries (food for home consumption) in its tax base, and
groceries are fully taxable [Missouri taxes groceries at a reduced rate]. Assume there is a big
debate in the Kansas legislature on whether to exempt groceries from the retail sales tax, and you
would like to weigh in.
Write a mock letter to the editor of the Topeka Capitol-Journal with your opinion on how the
legislature should vote. You can take any position (i.e., include, exempt, reduced rate, other
position?). Your letter to the editor will be assessed on the quality of the economic/public finance
content and the writing itself, mostly the former. Your grade will not depend at all on what
position you take, but how you defend it. Indeed, I hope students will take different positions.
Think about efficiency arguments, equity arguments, the qualities of a “good” tax system,
collection of revenue, the structure of the overall tax system, and anything else you may consider
elevant.
A letter to the editor is not a formal treatise. It should be about one page in length, double-
spaced, 12-point font. This requirement is not absolute, but exceedingly long letters will be
penalized, as will letters that are too short to say anything meaningful. These letters likely will be
somewhat longer than most letters to the editor you see in the newspaper. Still, you will not be
able to cover every thought you have about the issue or every angle of the issue and will not be
expected to.
Remember that newspaper readers generally are not economists or policy analysts. Your letter
should make sound economic and policy arguments, but in a way that would be digestible to
your typical newspaper reader. That aspect of the letter will be a substantive part of your grade.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (I am not associated with this group) has a web page on
Writing an Effective Letter to the Editor. There are no doubt other useful resources on the web.
Many advocacy associations have similar pages.
The letter must be typed and submitted in .pdf formant. The letter is due on Saturday April 24
at 11:59 pm. You may submit an unlimited number of times. Only the last one will be delivered
to me by Canvas as your response and must be submitted by the due date/time. You may submit
through April 27 but will be penalized by 10 percentage points per day it is late. A submission at
12:05 am on April 25 would have 10 points deducted. Don’t lose points this way.
I am going to start a new thread on Canvas for questions related to assignments. If you have any
questions, please post them there or attend the Zoom Office Hour on Thursdays at 5 pm.
Otherwise it is difficult to filter through all of the posts to identify questions. I will try my best to
espond within 24 hours. Otherwise feel free to email me at XXXXXXXXXX. Again, I will
do my best to respond within 24 hours.
I look forward to reading your letters.
https:
1drv.ms
s!AlVFs5odDjl3hZNOGIjSc9uaASLK_w?e=vcjJ6N
https:
www.ucsusa.org
esources/writing-effective-letter-edito
mailto: XXXXXXXXXX