I have been so overly focused on the economy and the Presidential election that I have not talked about a huge issue that we are facing locally. A group of individuals in our state who are anti large government gathered enough signatures to put a question on the presidential ballot. The question is a binding referendum that would repeal the state income tax. In 2002 this same group had the same question on the ballot and it nearly won with 45% of the voters voting yes. If this were to go through we would loose 40 % of our state revenue! 12.7 billion dollars would be gone. How could any budget survive such a cut. The effects of this cut would be widely felt. Education would take a huge hit. The impact would include larger class sizes, teacher layoffs, and perhaps even school closings. Our roads and bridges will go into further disrepair. Our police, fire and ambulance services would be cut. The thought of all of these things happening on top of the already volatile financial market sickens me! I will be speaking at the Loring Center next Wednesday at a community meeting to inform local voters as to the devastating effects this will have should it go through. One of the things that the 'vote no' people have been saying is that this is a reckless idea and I totally agree. It is more than reckless it puts our families in harms way.
Let's hope that voter's really think about this vote and make the right decision!
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