When writing guest essays, I often use the nom de plume The Inquiring Taxpayer. However, my sphere of inquiry extends far beyond matters of taxation. Life is nothing if not an endless series of situations which invite questions. What is that noise that I hear during the rinse cycle? Why do I keep missing those 5-foot putts? What is that “transition charge” on my RGE bill? Where did the Giants get those offensive linemen?

Some questions are harder to answer than others. While you can probably call RGE about the transition charge and get an answer within an hour or two of being put on hold, finding out how the Giants discovered all those truly offensive linemen might not be so easy.

Moving along from less personal inquiries to those of a more public/political scope presents another quandary: Whom can you trust? In today’s blizzard of viewpoints, so many of which directly contradict each other, how does the inquiring citizen find the elusive truth?

A good tactic to use when confronted by a one-dimensional analysis of an issue or person is to ask, “What does the other side say?”

For example. The Inquiring Taxpayer has never met an “economic development” PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, that he liked. Some such arrangements are less offensive than others, but for the most part I’m a skeptic. I’ve written numerous columns on........

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