My Donation To Government

To the Editor:

Well yesterday it came in the mail; my love note from the tax office. Just what do I get for this “donation” to my local government.

Water usage — ah, no.

Garbage pickup — ah no.

Tree trimming — ah no.

Patching of the road — ah no, but they try.

Pumping out of the sewers that overflow — ah no, but they try.

Slowing down the speeders on my street — ah no; they put up a “thing” that tells the speeders how fast they are going — and then remove it within a couple of days (speeders then know how fast they can go).

So really, what does my tax dollar (lots of them) pay for?

Oh yeah schools — but wait a minute, I don’t use them — hmmmm. Oh yeah the parks — but wait a minute, I don’t use them either (gotta work to pay the my donation) and I think you have to pay to use them. Oh yeah the dump — no gotta pay to use the dump. Oh yeah the pools for the summer, no gotta pay for use there too.

Okay, I give up — what does my donation (that you are so nice to let me pay for) really take care of?

So how do they come up with this number that tells them I owe X number of dollars for the right to live in Newtown?

Ah, the assessment on my home/land. Well who makes that brilliant decision? Not me — maybe a realtor? No, then who? And what do they use as the decisionmaking principle? Local sales of homes — can’t be that, the market is down — but my taxes (sorry I mean donation) are up?

Look, I’m just a stupid public school graduate — but didn’t we fight a war with England over taxation without representation (are they still teaching that — or was that changed)?

Citizens, when are we going to stand up for what we feel and defend our rights? Taxes are too high, our government (local, statewide, and federal) are not responding to our wishes. We have to vote the bums out and bring some common sense back to our country. Right?

Is this what we mean by Hope and Change?

John Karlson

167 Great Quarter Road, Sandy Hook                             July 2, 2010