What did she do in those 19 years to increase her job skills to make herself more employable? Nothing, it seems. You have to keep developing your job skills and aptitudes or expect to be felled by the axe. It’s not the taxpayers’ job to provide people like her with an income for life. Adapt, or get paved over.

-the baby boomers as whole out number 2.7 to 1
in terms of current population

-Retire pensions AND medical benefits are consuming 30-40% of the BUDGET agreements and mandates etc – they or the union will not take a cut nor will pay for their medical the # of retirees equal/exceed the number of the employed municapl labor force!!!!then you add in disability pymts-

house being built on stilts – with respect to my buddy a retired cop 90k tax free pension and no medical payments – so this is why the blades are out – until the retirees take a modest cut and pay some medical the down ward trend will continue

AND yes the school taxs are 66% and the county is only 33% – schools same thing – retirees are stressing the unsustainable system – I would leave here tomorrow if i could !

But since you went there, don’t believe what you hear from the talking heads on the radio. At appropriate times, “tax and spend” works very well (like for the TVA, WPA and so on). But again, that’s _not_ what we’re talking about.

If you want the quality of life maintained here, then services must be protected. These are services that are done more efficiently in the public sector, just as Medicare is far more efficient than private health insurance companies.

Regarding your tax bill–and I have a large property tax bill myself–about 20% is county taxes. If an annual 2% increase was needed to keep up with costs and maintain services, that increase on your $10k bill (since it’s 2% on the 20% that’s county taxes) would come to about $3 a month. Actually, just over $2 a month net, once you get your federal tax deduction.

I can spare another $2 a month to make sure my roads are plowed, my streetlights are on and the police department stays strong to keep us safe. And if most people didn’t listen to political scare tactics and saw that that’s the kind of number we’re talking about, I think they’d feel the same way.

This “never raise taxes” shell game is making a mockery of responsible governance. Cutting waste is great. Looking for efficiencies, modernizing, utilizing technology… all great things. But costs go up every year, even if you don’t add a single extra employee. People expect raises–and that’s not unreasonable most of the time, even if the increases are just modest cost of living adjustments–benefits costs rise and so on. To suggest that we can maintain the level of services that help make this area what it is while never raising taxes is absurd. Both parties lack the guts to speak plainly and honestly to the voters, and instead they’re destroying our essential services a little at a time.

By the way, those people whose jobs they’re taking support local businesses with the money they take home. It’s not like it’s getting shipped overseas. That money helps keep our economy going. More unemployed people just hurts all of us!