Why Taxes Are So High

To the Editor:

After three tries at passing the town budget, there is a groping for the cause even though the true origin has been self-evident for years. The taxes are too high with respect to the income of many of us. And why are the taxes so high? Mainly because we are paying our teachers sky-high benefits.

My dear administrative leaders, how can you expect most of us seniors and those who are not millionaires to support you as long as you pay over $20,000 per year for health benefits, automatic pay increases, and pay for overtime to which teachers as professionals are not entitled.

The results of your approach only shows the belief that more money buys better teachers. How wrong can you be? Not as long as tenure exists and teachers like the mediocre, the schlemiel, and the care-not are part of the system. And they will be there as long as automatic pay increases are to be had, a royal pension and health care system are in place, and tenure exists. Then to rub salts into the wounds, you increase the money for education and reduce it for the rest of the town’s budget. My 10-year-old grandson can make a better guess.

I firmly believe that a better educational system will only be attained when tenure is eliminated and with it collective bargaining for those unions who have shown no restraint in burdening their fellow citizens with never-ending demands for more and more and then some more. From my perspective, I see unions, like the teachers who have a former Wall Street attorney at the helm, ruin unions across the country. At some point, the burden of the public sector will be so great that state governments will follow the example of Wisconsin and abolish collective bargaining for all public employees, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Why have we not separated the education budget from the rest of the town budget? Could it be that some town folks would see for the first time how much money is spent on education and how paltry the returns? I find no fault with the rest of the town budget. I have nothing but respect for our hard-working men and women.

Oscar Berendsohn

34 Appleblossom Lane, Newtown                                 June 12, 2012