As usual, the business community, Times included, is always quick to point out the benefits to our economy when we extend tax breaks to new business, unless said business happens to be a competitor, of course [“Extend data-center tax break,” Opinion, May 18].

Left unsaid is the fact that tax income forgiven to one is tax that somebody else would have to pay, and if business doesn’t pay it who does? Almost any new company that locates here means more jobs, obviously, and those new jobs means more workers. But left unsaid is that those new residents mean more customers for businesses like The Times. Good for the business, probably, but to be blunt and possibly misinformed, what’s in it for me? What’s in it for those of us who have to pay the taxes, besides a larger percentage of our income lost to the tax man?

Just once, I would like the tax-break enthusiasts to give us fact and numbers that prove how we all would benefit. Where and how would the billions of dollars, lost to tax breaks, come from? I stand ready to stand corrected.

Don Curtis, Clinton