Letter to the Editor: Proposition 1 Lake Forest Park

To the Editor:

The defeat of Proposition 1 in Lake Forest Park is notable for several reasons. Last April the Mayor and city council planned to put a property tax raise initiative on the ballot during the August primary. This initiative would have increased your property tax rate by 38.6% in 2011. The Wall Street Journal ran an article remarking on this huge tax increase. This came about from fiscal ineffectiveness of this administration and their unwillingness to create a realistic budget for these financial times. This could have cost some of our elderly citizens and young families their homes. Early this year a number of citizens approached the council to request that the initiative be delayed from the proposed August primary until the November general election to ensure the broadest participation. The council refused this request. A group of citizens came together to work to defeat this initiative. They educated themselves about the issue and took it to the community with a series of meetings, coffees and printed material all carefully researched to represent the facts. The community responded overwhelmingly and almost 80% of our citizens voted against the initiative. . Our elected officials have not represented the community or done what is best for the people who elected them. This is most disappointing. The most important aspect of this campaign is that the citizens came together and formed a group to protect the community and effect change when our elected officials did not do what they were elected to do. It also proves that the citizens action in a community can bring about successful change and have a huge impact on their government.

Linda Holman

Lake Forest Park