We voted on Tuesday on the 31 million dollar hospital bond. It went down by a vote of 2 to 1, which we were relieved to see. Now, it isn't that we don't think a new hospital is needed in our county. If we only had to pay the cost of one soda pop per day, which those pushing this bond said, we would have voted for it in a heartbeat. That would have come to $187 a year!
However, being a land owner (and not a large land owner, either) we would have had to pay a minimum of $1000 more per year in additional property taxes and, if the hospital couldn't pay their share (which most likely they couldn't for a few years) it would have increased our taxes by almost $2000 per year. Bye bye, thoughts of serving a mission!
Property owners get taxed way more than our share. We are currently paying $600 a year for the fire department, $300 for the library, and that soda pop per day for mosquito abatement. If anyone's house or hay barn catches on fire where we live, just kiss it goodbye. The fire department will arrive in time to watch the rest of it burn. The library is nice, but not even our grandkids use it much. They use the library at their own school, or the internet. The mosquito control, well they don't come out here too often. We were run out with mosquitos this past summer.
The economy sucks right now. We sold our dairy cows in February because we were beginning to lose money bigtime. Now we sit with a barn completely full of hay, with NO buyers. It is that way all over our county. Probably our country, too. This isn't the time to try to pass a large bond for a hospital, and the voters spoke that overwhelmingly.
Hopefully the hospital board will sharpen their pencils and come up with something that the people in the county can live with, AND AFFORD! Example.....why move the nursing home to the new hospital? That is 5 million dollars right there. Also, 500 parking spots? Doctors offices in the hospital? Let them build their own offices.
I don't mind paying my fair share of taxes. "Fair share" is the key to that last sentence. Let's raise the county sales tax so it affects everyone the same. I love my little town and county, but please.....we are hurting right now along with everyone else. Let's help each other through this!
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2 comments:
Good thoughts, Carolyn, where was your letter to the editor??? We could definitely use a new hospital, but as Wayne said in his letter to the editor, why go whole hog? I know, I know, he didn't say it in quite those words. We got a letter from the editor from someone from your town, & although he didn't name names, he was definitely pointing a finger at one of the people running for city council in Clifton.
RaNae, I didn't think I needed to write a letter to the editor...Wayne covered our thoughts. Who wrote from my town? Is it going to be in the paper or did I miss it? Anyway, look at what we have built over here for our schools and we did it a little at a time. Yes, it takes several years but is well worth the wait! I tell Melvin Beutler (our superintendent who is largely responsible for all we have) that we'll give him 5 million and he'd build the hospital if he had 5 years! That man is amazing!
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