To the editor:
Property tax bills will be coming soon and we still have no indication what the bill might be. There are indications that even though we in the private sector are all suffering through harsh economic times, there is a clear indication that the public sector wants to be immune to the same hardships that we’re experiencing. Even though we’ve expressed our indignation with our city council about what they were proposing to do with residential property values and they relented, we still have no idea what our mill rate will be on the city side of the total budget. So much for transparency this late in the game when our charter clearly supports a set rate by April 1st of each year. Having served on the council for nine years I know full well that very few council members have any empathy for all the citizens of this city. As a matter of fact, most have an agenda that serves their needs at the expense of all citizens who may not enjoy all the benefits that they like to have provided to them.
Now, that I’ve beat up on the council, we’ve got another little problem that is approximately 50 percent of our budget dilemma — that is our educational system. We provide our children with a Cadillac education and rightly so. They have to go out in a very complicated world with all the tools needed to survive the hardships they will have to come to grips with. One major hurdle will be to make enough money to provide them with a livable and sustained lifestyle with as little complication as possible and also to support a public service that is to the point of becoming unsustainable in its present form with no clear indication of a change of attitude towards making it more affordable.
Our education department has been very secretive about all that goes on within the school system and is reluctant to allow the very citizens who pay all the bills to know what’s going on. They make sure they elect school board members who are accustomed to allow them a wide range of activity outside the realm of academics and often this takes precedent over the teaching of subject matter that is crucial to provide our children with the capabilities to accept the challenges they will face in the future.
We must come to grips with this and prioritize how our hard earned tax dollars must be spent. We now have access to a system which gives us some control over our educational system. It’s through the voting booth. We now have to vote on the school budget as all good citizens should. Please do not vote “Yes” on a school budget that you have no knowledge or complete understanding of what your voting for. You would be doing a great disservice to yourself and all the other hard working citizens of this community and also the students.
Last year hardly anyone knew about voting on the school budget and only a few showed up. Only 200-plus people voted on the school budget and this is probably an amount comparable to those who work for our school department and you can bet they all voted to ensure they got everything they wanted.
Our city government has done a poor job at educating the general public about this vote so I’m telling you now that you have the privilege to vote on the school budget and make your thoughts known and for your own protection against unaffordable taxes. Take some pride in doing your civic duty folks.
Caribou
