LETTERS: School tax ... Vote yes! Vote no!

Palm Coast Observer
Opinion

Public employees feel entitled to raises

Dear Editor:
Thank you for the thorough summary of the issues regarding the school board tax referendum in your "Our View" piece. While experiencing gratitude for your putting things so clearly, when I went on to read other things published in the same issue, I developed quite a different frame of mind.

One item is in your piece: the raises given to school administrators on Dec. 18, 2012, that never got any mention in the talks about budget savings for the School Board. And in Megan Hoye's article, "County seeks ‘sustainability’," there are two items listed under "budget needs" that got my attention: salary/cost of living adjustments for county employees, $750,000, and health insurance increases for county employees, $250,000.

In an economy where those paying the bills (taxpayers) have lost jobs and where take-home pay has been devastated and often eliminated entirely, it is somehow taken for granted that because you are on a public payroll, you automatically are entitled to and get raises? Is this concept or assumption so sacred it can't be addressed?

Here's someone else's reality — that of a young woman standing on the sidewalk near Walmart a couple days ago whom I stopped to question because she was holding up a sign: "Please help." When I asked her about her situation, she said, "My fiance and I have both lost our jobs and we have run out of money: we're living in the woods.”

Seems many public employees live in another world.

George Hibbard
Palm Coast

Don't take out your frustration with government on the kids

Dear Editor:
I have to say that I am very disappointed in the Palm Coast Observer's stance on this topic. As a person in the "trenches" of this school district, I can say with 100% confidence that a no vote on June 7 will have dire consequences on this community.

However, much of the dissent from letter writers is coming from an overall bitterness with "government" in general and our country's economy. Or, from a lack of understanding of what this tax is actually for and why it's being requested.

I beg of you, do not allow your dissatisfaction with our country's state of affairs cloud your judgment on this matter. This is not Washington. It is a beautiful little community with a lot to offer, but, like any other school district, suffering from the trickle effect of a poor economy.

Our kids and our school employees are suffering enough due to those issues, just as all of us are in this country. A no vote would only exacerbate that suffering. Realize that your no vote is taking out your frustration on the wrong side. It will not be a "meaningful stand" against a board that may or may not have made poor decisions in the past. It will be a no to the kids who have no control over how we, the adults, decide how they will be educated. It will be a no to jobs for many of this community's members that work with these kids.

Shoshanah Mercado
School psychologist, Flagler Schools