Making more mistakes, not progress

Dear Editor,

Why is it, our politicians, commissioners and schools districts never learn anything from their mistakes? While reading the newspaper or watching CNN or any other station that is covering our inept government at work, I wonder why we can't change their greedy ways or the bad decisions they make on our behalf. They repeat their past ignorance year after year, with the same results.

The easiest fix for the short falls our country, state or city is to remove entitlement programs that never solve the problem, but encourages the same behavior. These are the things that created the program in the first place. I believe in helping those that I can, but I don't want to enable the person to continue life with their hands stretched out waiting for the next hand out. Encouraging people that are struggling to make better choices to fit their income would be a great start. Why people on welfare continue bearing children one after another, after they realize they can't afford the first child and yet expect a handout is pure insanity. The saddest part is, we have trained them to breed for an income of benefits. I believe that is part of the reason we have so many illegal immigrants entering our country; we have allowed our government to fund a lifestyle for people that choose not to work or enter our country because the financial benefits are so easy to get. I look back and wonder why I didn't choose to father more children than I could afford. Then sit back and let every employed person pay for the needs of the children I choose to have. America has become a disappointment, I see our service men dying for the sake of other countries yet our government looks the other way when it comes to the safety and security of our own borders.

The next issue is the unneeded projects that our city burdens us with on a regular basis. Have you noticed what the commission chooses to place on the list of priorities for our community? The expense of those priorities fall short when considering what is important or what our community can afford. If the city continues on the same path, what will happen when the revenue falls short of the budget requirements and El Dorado can't pay its long term debts and cuts start happening and the mill levy skyrockets? (Think about the El Dorado Lake debt and the choices made not to pay.)

The finale issue is the school district bond issue. The sales pitch is.... $10 for each $100,000 value a home or business has. Doesn't seem like much, but here we are, the sales tax has increased to 7.55 percent. Nothing says it can't increase each year to increase the state’s ability to pay the bills it creates or shortages created by less spending consumers. How much more can you afford to cut back on and still survive? What will the school district do to raise their share of funding since the state has given them the ability to raise the mill levy to fund education? This issue is an unknown and until then we will be at the mercy of the school district. Beware, if the state chooses to inflate the values of properties or the mill levy to increase the revenue they collect next year or the following years what will that $10 turn into, $30, $40, $50 or $100? Remember the new football stadium is still being pursued by the school district, Butler College and the city, they are all involved with the funding. How much more can you afford in additional taxes on projects that don't pay their own way? The problem the state, city and school district don't seem to get is you still have to maintain it after it's built.

In closing, we need the basics not the fluff. We should be demanding lower taxes and a government that is held accountable.

Burt Long, Jr.
a.k.a FedUp
El Dorado