(Blog-person’s note: it took me a bit to calm down to put my feelings/thoughts together to post this)
Well, I said let’s get down to business, so here we are. Our first Township Advisory Board business meeting last Tuesday and the board and I are all excited!
The public wasn’t. Of the 8 folks that attended the meeting, there were 2 spouses (we’ll assume they are interested residents), 2 folks from Worth Township, 2 folks from the local newspapers, 1 person from Lebanon and 1 actual real township resident.
I can see where government bodies get frustrated when the only time they get public input is when someone is against something. (I can hear the “welcome to the club” comments” in the background now.) But this trustee and board campaigned on wanting to make a positive difference in the township, particularly with fire protection for one. From a quick glance at the financial figures which we finally received at the meeting on the 16th, we paid over $202,000 for fire protection to Worth Township in 2006, with income from taxes of $183,000 plus. We will start the year out with $7,500 in the bank for fire protection in 2007. That is not enough to pay 1/2 of January’s fire bill. And this is not even getting into the construction of the $1,400,000+ fire station and staffing.
I am told “this is not a problem”. Townships go for “emergency” loans to pay for current obligation’s all the time. Worth Township just approved $300,000+ just to keep the ambulance going, that I thought we paid half of.
Saying that we are not going to raise your taxes for fire protection, BUT you may have to pay a little extra for debt service is NOT what we campaigned for! Yes, this is a bigger issue than just Union Township; it is a state issue on how we fund local government services. Gee, the state legislature is meeting right now. Maybe we can rally their support to come up with a rational way to fix this. But that takes some citizen participation.
Then I look at all the empty seats. Only one, “non-spousal”, resident of Union Township (who was an opponent in the primary election) was at the meeting. We need some good ideas that come from a positive discussion of thoughtful people and not just the standard answer of “we can borrow our way out of debt”. We needed not only your vote, but really need your real participation in YOUR local government!
I am usually a really upbeat positive person…perhaps I’ll feel better now that I have “vented”.
