The top story in the Friday YDN is the debate on the state level about whether exempting Yale from paying taxes on for-profit property might, perhaps, be one more issue on which the Whig party got it wrong: State Rep. Toni Walker, a Democrat from New Haven who has been involved in drafting legislation concerning the exemption, said the city, which may increase property tax rates for the third straight year, needs Yale to pay its "fair share." "We have no more money, and we have to look at other ways to raise revenue," Walker said. "How do you tell the residents in the community that you have raise property taxes, but we're not going to tax a large corporation like Yale?" Mike Morand of Yale's Office of New Haven and State is apparently less than thrilled: "This legislation will impact no properties and add no revenues to New Haven," Morand said. "As for Yale, our plan is to continue the real partnerships we've built to make New Haven stronger, rather than be distracted by the loud few who refuse to give up the Yale-bashing history the vast majority of this community long left behind." I'd be the last to make light of the Ben Carson Book Club. But an array of charitable programs can't take the place of a sustained, negotiated, institutional partnership, and a few million dollars a year to buy a couple New Haven streets can't replace the dozen million dollar difference between the money coming out of CT taxpayers' pockets in lieu of Yale's taxes and the amount in taxes the property of this company town company is worth.