Letter to the Editor: We Can’t Afford Lake Forest Park Proposition 1

To the Editor:

Fellow citizens, when considering Proposition 1, it is normal to feel anxious how to vote yes or no. While you enjoy our shared quality of life, you also realize, life has changed. Property values have dropped, adult children have moved back home, savings are being depleted, and you realize, the economy will take years to recover. You are probably finding you have cut back on frills, and trying to payoff credit cards and loans. Moving may be out of the question because you owe more than your property is worth. Meantime, the City is asking to raise the levy lid, on the pretense it cannot operate on the tax revenue raised. The City is asking you to vote for free rein on how to spend the increased taxes, no strings attached, and in addition, it is asking for yearly CPI increase for an additional 5 years. Once the levy lift is over, the City expects to keep its raise, and will have to ask for even more. If you vote NO, the City still retains its taxing authority to use for providing its services and in the meantime give us, a recipe which fixes their structural problems. Voting No gives you the control, to make the City find more solutions now to contain costs, just like you are doing at home. Just like you have found ways to cut back, the City will too. It has a cushion of reserves. 6 years of increases is too much if it doesn’t fix the problem. Vote No on Proposition 1, and feel ok you are doing what needs to be done to keep more of your money in your wallet. Where there is a will there is a way.

Mary Jane Goss

Lake Forest Park