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Until Then

I am proud to be a Clinton “No” voter. I have lived in Clinton 48 years and paid almost as much in taxes as I paid for our home.

Taxes were once modest and reasonable and I voted “Yes” more than “No” and never missed a vote, but over the last 20 years I have made it a point to vote “No” in every referendum because Clinton is living beyond my means, and it’s making me say no to other important things, too, like food and medicine and heat.

Once, I remember a Clinton that was a happy, peaceful place to live, but now, so many letters to the editor express no empathy for the financial plight of taxpayers on fixed- or meager incomes. In fact, some of those letters seem downright callous, indifferent, and even mean-spirited.

Fortunately I am not alone. There are more and more people like me and fewer people who are “Yes” voters. As enrollment has declined and continues to decline, there are fewer permissive parents who are easily manipulated into hysteria by the school administration.

What do we have to show for all of these tax increases? Empty store-fronts on Main Street, fewer days of dump service, depressed home values, stunted commercial development, and an army of over-paid school administrators who don’t give tests, teach classes, or grade papers.

I don’t expect to get any sympathy from the parents or teachers who have been frantically writing, but some day in the future, when the shoe is on the other foot, they will know all of my fellow “No” voters and I have had a valid point and they are likely to come join us.

Until then, I will try to forgive them and vote “No” on May 9.

Joyce Allen

Clinton