If you look around our cities and towns, you have to know that big retail chains destroyed a way of life.

Today you shop in malls instead of small stores — in supermarkets instead of corner groceries. Department stores died. Eventually Walmart will offer everything from brain surgery to funerals — and all that.

The big retailers drove out many of the types of people who once led and inspired our communities. I mean owners of significant retail businesses. Of big department stores. And hardwares. Clothing stores. Groceries and pharmacies. Car dealers and hotel operators. Small-town bankers. Furniture dealers. Movie theater operators.

Some remain, but most are gone. These were people who funded endowments of churches and hospitals. They propped up charities, symphonies. They rescued libraries. They led Rotaries and Lions and booster clubs. They served in city and town governments. They put their United Ways over the top year after year.

They were invaluable on boards of all sorts. Because they knew budgets, numbers, financial discipline. They knew how to run businesses. Their knowledge helped every group they served to pull up their socks. 

Big retail chains decimated the ranks of these independent retailers. A few are left. Most are gone from our communities. ‘Tis doubtful their like will ever return. 

The chains even wiped out leaders in their own ranks. Used to be that managers of Sears and JCPenney were pillars of their communities. Their firms encouraged that. Allowed them budgets for local charities. Tell me, who manages your Walmart today? Your Walmart that does 50 times the business your Sears of ole did.

I think of what we have lost when I buy gas at my village convenience store. It is part of a big chain. Years ago there were two gas stations in the village. Their owners contributed to all the little charities in the area. They bought ads in the high school yearbook. They kicked in to buy uniforms for the school band. They gave to their churches. They were generous to Scouts.

The convenience store chain gives zip to local organizations. It takes in 50 times the money those gas stations did. It gives back nada, in leadership or money. The same is true all the way up the chain, with most of the big box retailers. In all the communities of this state, this country.

Walmart may give a few thousand to some charities. But as a percentage of their sales in a community? Their contributions are nothing compared with the donations that flowed from the many stores they replaced.

I am not chastising the big retailers. My point is that communities used to get more back from retailers than they do now. Retailers behaved like responsible members of communities. Because their owners were. We have lost much of that. 

Here is something that would replace some of that largesse of the past: Imagine if every Walmart, every supermarket, every Lowe’s and BJ’s kicked in a nickel for every transaction. Kicked in a nickel to a community fund. One nickel for every customer, every transaction, every day.

As a percentage of the dollars they take in? The tiniest of pittances. As a token of their responsibility to the communities of the customers who enrich them? Long overdue. Long overdue.
  It is easy for me to conjure such an idea. I would love to see some of our leaders get behind it and suggest, encourage, push, embarrass, shame — if necessary — our retail chains to step up to the plate on this or something like it. Their haul from us is gigantic. They ought to give back more. This is an easy way to do it. And, believe me, they would never feel it.

  From Tom…as in Morgan.

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home near Oneonta, in addition to his radio shows and new TV show. For more information about him, visit his website at www.tomasinmorgan.com 

Our all-volunteer military is the most effective in the world because of the men and women who risk their lives every day to protect us. Their service is essential to our nation’s security, but it places an enormous burden on them and on their families as well, and we owe them our support and our gratitude.

Part of the burden for New York families of active-duty servicemen and women is a property-tax bill that can run into thousands of dollars a year. This can pose a tremendous hardship for New Yorkers who are struggling to make ends meet while their primary breadwinner is defending our country.

That’s why my office has drafted a program bill — the TRAMS Act, Tax Relief for Active Military Service — to provide a real property-tax exemption of 10 percent of assessed value to active-duty military members serving during wartime, plus an additional 10 percent for those serving in a combat zone.

There is precedent for giving this break to military families: New York state already grants a 15 percent property-tax exemption to our military veterans. There is no reason that we shouldn’t allow men and women who are currently serving to claim this benefit as well.

Money in pockets

This exemption means real money in the pockets of military families. Veterans who qualify under the existing law save hundreds of dollars on their property-tax bills every year — and the savings are even greater when both spouses have served in the armed forces.

As a state senator, I fought to extend this tax benefit to all combat veterans who own a home in New York — regardless of where or when they served. When it comes to critical veterans benefits, there should be one set of rules for everyone.

It shouldn’t matter where you served or when — just that you served.

As attorney general, I have worked with local tax officials, who administer the exemption, to clear up confusion about who should be covered by the law.

As with federal veterans’ benefits, New York classifies all military service over the last 23 years as having taken place during the “Persian Gulf War” period. So my office has issued a letter to county property-tax officials across the state making it clear that veterans of our armed forces who have served during the last 23 years, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, do indeed qualify and instructing them to grant the tax exemptions.

This will help ensure that any veterans who were improperly denied will not end up paying thousands of dollars they didn’t really owe.

Now, I want to make life a little easier for active-duty service members and their young families, rather than making them wait until after they leave the service. There is no reason the brave men and women who put themselves in danger to protect our security, our rights, and our way of life should have to wait for the benefits of homeownership.

Veterans Day reminds us all of the enormous debt we owe to those who serve in our armed forces. It is in recognition of their sacrifice, and a measure of the gratitude that all New Yorkers feel toward our servicemen and women, that we should help ease the burden they carry for keeping us safe.

Eric T. Schneiderman is the New York state attorney general.