Letters to Editor 2 May 2010

Let's find a better use for proposed levy money

By
-

To the editor:

The tax levies, #4 and #5 on the upcoming ballot, propose to have us raise a half-million dollars – per year – to pay the State for their Ag. Extension, 4-H, and Soil & Water Conservation programs, with most of the money going toward state salaries.

A half-million dollars per year.

Let’s just take a minute to think what we in our county might be able to do with that half-million dollars per year.

Could we buy farmland and use it as a training area(s) and profit center for our young farmers-to-be? Maybe a partnership with SSCC that doesn’t cost us O.S.U. prices and State demands for oversight? As a county operation, could we tell the greedy Idol-wannabes at O.S.U. to go take a hike?

Could we use a half-million dollars per year to provide Small Business training and start-up assistance for our LOCAL citizens and within our community? Especially if we included requirements to “hire LOCAL”? Could we get SSCC to leave the 1960s behind and develop and offer a REAL course in entrepreneurship? Wouldn’t that be better than paying a lot of money to SSCC to prepare our kids for jobs that have been disappearing from this country for three decades?

Could just half that proposed amount… just a quarter-million dollars per year… be enough to get started with those improvements to our LOCAL well-being? Could our County Commission forget about putting the levies for the State on the ballot in Nov. and replace them with a levy for Highland County to use to actually help ourselves instead of just enriching the OSU and State rainbow salesmen?

Surely we in Highland can come up with very good ways to invest a half-million dollars per year into our Community without sending most of it off to Columbus. I've offered just a couple ideas but everyone in Highland ought to give it some thought and then speak up to local elected folks. We're bound to get a few good ideas out of a few dozen suggestions. And anyway, if all we do with our money is leave it in our pockets for a few years we’ll probably still be better off.

We are long overdue to start weaning the State away from the Highland County checkbook so we can use our money to get back on our feet and now is an excellent opportunity to begin.

Vote NO on anything that has to do with “partnering with”, or “supporting”, or ANYTHING that lets State or OSU near our piggy bank.

Sincerely,

Jim Moore

Hillsboro  

 

 


[[In-content Ad]]

Add new comment

This is not for publication.
This is not for publication.
About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
Article comments are not posted immediately to the Web site. Each submission must be approved by the Web site editor, who may edit content for appropriateness. There may be a delay of 24-48 hours for any submission while the web site editor reviews and approves it. Note: All information on this form is required. Your telephone number and email address is for our use only, and will not be attached to your comment.