Election Day

I've had a little anxiety over this election. It's typical to have school levies on the ballot, and today was no exception. The local school district has been pushing to move the high school out of town and to combine it with the local YMCA... Yeah, no kidding! Seems the trend is to move everything out of town. Stores and restaurants have been relocating just a couple of miles away to bigger buildings. But you see, there is a large population of poorer families and senior citizens that live downtown and used to walk to these stores. Pretty soon it will be an all-day hike to get their errands ran. The YMCA is also smack-dab downtown. Lots of older folks frequent it.

And what ever happened to remodeling? They keep pushing for new buildings because the others need repair. The high school I went to for two years was falling apart. That was in 1970! Guess what? They remodeled. It's still there serving as the junior high. They did have to expand and built a new school in 1972.

The biggest news story for a while now has been the economy. Everyone is struggling. It's got the attention of the federal government. But what about the local government? If they raise our taxes much more, we will be forced to sell and move. And the more people they drive out, the more the remaining few will have stacked on their backs! When will it end?

OK, here's my pet peeve: We get to vote on levies for schools, hospitals, police & fire departments, the local library... you get the picture. But when did I vote for spending so much of my tax money on landscaping the downtown every year? It's beautiful sure, but in this economic downturn shouldn't we think about leaving last year's plants alone?

I just watched the local news and the levy failed by a significant margin AGAIN! Another pet peeve of mine... They keep putting the levy back on the ballot until the people opposed don't have a big enough turnout to defeat it. Shouldn't we only have to vote on a single issue one time? If we say we don't want it, why should they be allowed to keep bringing it up?

When I retired, I was forced to make some changes in my budget. When my benefits were slashed, I had to tighten the belt a bit more. Shouldn't our local government and school districts be forced to do the same? There are plenty of ways they could cut costs.

Sorry about the late-night ranting of an old lady. There is a funny side to this whole thing... I forgot to go vote!