Once upon a time, there was a small seaside town with a reputation for very low property taxes because they were willing to host a Big Dirty Power Plant right in the middle of what could have been a lovely waterfront vista. The residents were so happy with their low taxes that they were willing to avert their eyes away from the Big Dirty Power Plant and even seemed to go out of their way to discourage any other businesses from coming into Town.
Then a Bad Thing happened. New people discovered the beautiful town on the water with the low taxes and began to move in.
Then a Worse Thing happened -- they brought (shudder...) children. And they continued to come and they continued to bring more children. And then the Town just wasn't that small anymore.
Then the town had to build a new High School, and then build two new elementary schools, and then add additions to the elementary schools, and then add an addition on the high school. Then it added new policemen and firemen to protect the New People. Then it bought more trucks to plow the new roads and a new dump to hold the new trash.
Then the taxes weren't so low anymore.
As the Big Dirty Power Plant got older, it began to pay less of the Town's taxes. New Businesses were needed to help contribute to the costs of the New People -- but, it was too late. The New Businesses had already been scared away.
But, the New People were still here demanding education for their kids, and police and fire protection, and someplace to dump their trash. So the taxes started going up. And the tension between the New People and the Old People began to grow.
The Town then began to buy land to prevent any more New People from moving into the Town with New Children. But, then a funny thing happened. People began moving to other towns with lower taxes where they didn't need to fight for funding for the schools, or for police and fire protection (and where their trash got picked up every week!).
There began to be room in the schools again. But, now the Big Dirty Power Plant was in danger of closing and paying even less in taxes. And, the land that had been purchased by the Town to prevent New People from bringing New Students into town was no longer paying taxes.
And then a Worse Thing happened (again). The economy began to unravel. Many people began to lose their jobs and some were forced to give up their homes and move away. Many people were unable to pay increasing taxes so services began to be eliminated.
At this point, it would be great to be able to say "and then a Good Thing happened."
The reality is we are facing declining revenues and rising costs. There can be no free rides. The Community should, of course, continue to provide a quality education to its students -- "growing" the leaders of tomorrow is one of the most important things a Community does. The Community will also continue to provide Police and Fire protection as needed.
But, people should not expect their entertainment to be funded by their neighbors. If you want to swim in the school-funded pool, or your organization wants to use a town-owned facility, or the dump, or the beach, somebody needs to pay for it. If your kid wants to play soccer (or football, basketball, or hockey), somebody needs to pay for that too.
The cost of education and public safety are basic functions of government that are the responsibility of all citizens. But, given the current state of the economy, can we say the same thing about swimming, soccer, hockey or football?
Unfortunately, there needs to be a lot of ugly discussions before this will get resolved.
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