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EDITORIAL
Stunned at voter apathy,
indifference
March
15, 2007
Thank you to the 2,664 residents who
voted on March 13th. Your interest and involvement in our
community is commendable.
As for the rest of you...
We are amazed at the apathy of the other 8,605 registerd voters who on March 13th failed to show
up at the polls, or even vote by absentee ballot. Voter turnout
was a paltry 23.6%. Certainly some of you had valid reasons such
as illness, travel, transportation, etc. But 8,600 of you?
Was it just too much trouble, or do you have inexhaustible supplies of
money?
You'd better hope so, because in your absence, no fewer than 10 articles
passed which will once again push our tax rates upwards. What is
especially disappointing is that the vote on many was extremely
close. Had just a few of you who stayed home Tuesday taken a
little interest, the results might have been quite different.
Maybe the reason is not that your wallets are bottomless pits.
Maybe you just figured your vote wouldn't have made a difference.
If so, don't tell that to the residents of Lynchville and Danis
Parks. Article 13, a no-tax-impact article which would have
built a much-needed water distribution system for that area - at no cost
to you - failed by a mere 26 votes. Couldn't at least 26 of you
have taken some interest in what's going on in your community and to
your own neighbors?
And what about those 10 articles that are going to raise taxes again for
everyone in the community - including you?
Well, let's take a look at a few. School Article 4 in the amount
of $671K for school teacher raises passed by only 67 votes. The
School District's $33.2M operating budget passed by a mere 60
votes. And the land use change tax article passed by only 13
votes!
Where were YOU when these decisions - which will affect YOU - were being
made?
Don't any of you have an opinion on any of these issues? Don't you
care about what's going on all around you? Many of you vote in
primary and presidential elections - but why bother when you don't care
what's going on in your own backyard?
Now that we think of it, why did you register to vote at all?
We're stunned at the apathy and indifference you exhibited on
Tuesday. Maybe all of you should simply un-register yourselves as
voters. At least that's one way to raise the turnout percentage.
You do, however, have one thing in common with those of us who cared
enough about our community to head to the polls last Tuesday:
We'll all be paying our tax bills together in December.
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