Letter to the Editor: Now is not the time to add local taxes in LFP

To the Editor:

If you believe that all your tax dollars to Lake Forest Park are being well-spent, consider this:

The Proposition 1 election itself is going to cost the City a substantial amount of money - many thousands of dollars - particularly since it is being held in August rather than November.

The City has already spent thousands of tax dollars on the "Special Budget Issue" of the Town Crier - an 8-page full color special mailing earlier this year. There will be a "special insert" in the August Town Crier with "information" about Proposition 1 - strictly "information" from the City's perspective.

And then to top it off, some of the most highly paid city employees are handing out "information" about Proposition 1 during regular city business hours. Most recently, the City Administrator (who is compensated over $150,000 a year in salary and benefits) was at the local library handing out such "information".

I am not opposed to taxes. I believe we need to pay for essential services. But young families in my neighborhood are struggling and my elderly neighbors received no cost of living increase in their Social Security benefits this year. For 2010 the city added a $20 per vehicle car registration fee, added additional 6% franchise fees to Shoreline Water District water bills, increased their drainage utility fee 15% (on top of another 15% increase the previous year), increased sewer bills, and took the maximum allowable increase in property taxes.

Now is simply not the time to add to local taxes - particularly when the money is being spent for the types of things listed above.

Carolyn Armanini

Lake Forest Park