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FF School’s outdoor facilities bond about wants, not necessities [UPDATED]
Published 9:35am Friday, February 8, 2013 Updated 11:48am Friday, February 8, 2013First I’d like to set the record straight to establish that I don’t subscribe to the notion of anarchy nor am I in total opposition of the collection of taxes.
Obviously taxes are needed for the operation of essential services in what I’ll call a civilized and compassionate society. However, what I object to is the out of control, needless spending by government agencies; Federal, State, County, City and the agencies within.
That being said I will focus on one local entity for the sake of brevity for the time being. The Fergus Falls School System led by Mr. Ness and School Board proposes yet “more” spending at the expense of those who have the burden of paying for it.
Last November the ballot included the proposed bonding initiative to make improvements to the outdoor sporting facilities; that effort failed.
It has been said that l’m not informed to the efforts made in this venture. Nothing could be further from the truth. lt also was pointed out to me that State Statute allows this proposal to go before the taxpayers a second time in six months. This may be so, but it certainly doesn’t make it right.
Many of you all know that scores of local residence go south for the winter and utilize an absentee ballot. Again they too are faced with this returning agenda a second time while not returning after the first.
Then there’s the question as to the need of this spending venture and for what? Just for the sake of argument I’ll concede to what I understand to be the needed replacement of the North bleacher section of the outdoor facilities.
In my opinion that project could be undertaken with building funds that the school district already possesses while dispensing with a bonding initiative altogether.
The rest of what Mr. Ness and School Board propose is lots and lots of more expensive, useless fluff. l’m sick and tired of the mentality of want, want, want.
The students don’t suffer from the lack of necessity, nor should they. They have a more-than-adequate outdoor sporting facility and a beautifully remodeled “Iearning” facility that is tailored to their educational needs and incidentally is second to none while provided by citizens who are already taxed enough.
lt makes no difference what spin is put on how “little” my taxes will increase. Any amount is too much. What next? There’s never an end in sight to all the insane spending. l haven’t had a cost of living raise in over four years and what little I did receive in previous years prior hasn’t remotely come close to help in the ever increasing cost of living expenses; it’s the principal of it all.
Vaughn Ebbighausen
Fergus Falls
Amen to that!
One hopes that more people will have the courage to speak out as Vaughan Ebbighausen has. The combination of city and county governments and school districts seem to have the purpose of depriving the people of so much of their money that they cannot afford to speak out against the incessant demands for money from productive people.
This money grab is , sadly, a tactic of “progressives” here in town, and is repeated on the state and national levels by those who attempt to coerce more and more in taxes to expand a government animal with an insatiable appetite for spending other peoples’ money.
Ms. Ryan,
This is not a “progressives” problem. While I generally find my self on the right of center in many opinions, I’ll have to defend the “progressives” to the point that they are not the only ones guilty of wanting tax money. This problem is rampant in both the left and right. The Twins used tax payer money, the Vikings are going to do it, etc… They are run in large part by those that you would see as Republican supporters. The same party that screams about the left spending too much but then will turn around and give handouts to teams (businesses) and their contributors that rake in billions of dollars. The same goes for those in favor of taxing the bejeesus out of you and those that live in this city. They scream about spending until they see something that they want or can get a kickback from. Take a serious look at who does before making a statement like that.
The primary opposition to funding the Vikings new playground came from GOP members in the legislature. It is unfortunate that enough GOP voted with the DFL to pass the measure. Several of tose GOP members were defeated in their efforts to be reelected because many of their former supporters felt betrayed and withheld their votes.
I am taking the liberty to assume that your reference to local leaders concerns many “conservatives” who voted with the “progressives” to impose taxes on a reluctant population for the new ice arena. I know many people of both stripes. Have you noticed that only two of the seven council members who voted for that are no longer on the council? The voters did not forget their actions.