I'll start with the ugly. The county board approved a 3.23 percent levy increase for 2010. That doesn't seem too extreme in normal times when wages and inflation are increasing about that same amount. But these are not "normal" times. Those who are unemployed are not going to get an increase this year, those living on Social Security are not going to get an increase, I would think that most businesses are not going to be able to give their employees an increase this year and those people living off their investments can hope to maybe get back to even with what they have lost over the last year. So if almost everybody is at most staying even or losing income, how can we pay more taxes?
The bad part is I know the county and cities in this area are hurting also as tax revenues are down and they have to make cuts and/or cut back on services. This is life as we have to live it now. Will things get better? I think so, but it is going to take awhile and adjustments have to be made. I've said it before and I repeat it now, when part of the world is going up, part of the world is going to go down. We have had it pretty good in this country and we just may have to get along with less.
The good is that we all have to do our part to help others and this gives us an opportunity to serve others and not just ourselves. There are opportunities and there will be other opportunities that we don't even know about yet to not only survive this downturn but to thrive because of it. What we have to realize and this is a great comfort to me is that we are not in control, God is. We can fret and fume about our political leaders but God is in control of all authorities and He doesn't make mistakes. I'll leave the political arena for another time, that's not part of the "good."
I do appreciate that the county workers agreed to no increase in wages or benefits, let's not increase their taxes either. Let's see if we can roll back that 3.23 percent increase to 0 percent.
Terry Mickunas
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Sebeka
