With so many tax levies this year’s it’s hard to decide which to support and which to not. A wise person once told me to use the following to decide when hard decisions are at hand.
“Of what significance is this to my life and the life of my family.” It has always worked well for me.
EMS levy: I have attended all or most of the public meetings, asked and had answered many questions.
Had so much positive discussion with staff that really took the time to explain everything in detail. I can tell you we are so fortunate to have such a dedicated staff and administration here in Williams County.
No patchwork of networking of services and operations. The EMS funding is caught in the middle of insurance companies dictating what they will pay no matter how much they bill or what the cost is for service.
State Medicaid’s refusal to draw down federally intitled funds that 25 other states have done, Medicare’s low reimbursement rates, the States passage of HB 288 which prohibits the full collection of a bill for services. Despite all this, the EMS has hung on by a thread.
The levy provides better response times, better, reliable equipment on a regular schedule of replacement. Insures when you need them, they will be there.
They use every dime wisely, every day. The average levy for this service is 2 mils, so we are lower than average on cost. The life they save may be yours or you child’s or your parents and friends.
Significance to life is Great- Vote yes.
Library Levy: The library is on its way to sunset along with the stream engine and rotary phones. That system has served well for over 125 years. Computers and laptops and your phone are the modern way of getting information and reading.
Books are no longer as important, except for research. Older people still use the library, but younger folks do not, and we have way too many facilities and operational overhead to continue. Each landowner is paying for 6 libraries and 2 at each school and 8 libraries is just too much cost verses benefit.
The $300,000 limestone steps at Bryan were the last straw for me. The realization that how exactly the previous levy money would be spent was not defined enough and the county should have done a better job making them prove need.
I like the Montpelier way to fund the library. Keep it local. Facilities consolidation or elimination is the way to go. Reduce facilities to 3, plus independent Montpelier. 4 total.
If the town wants a library, then they can pay for it and benefit from being able use all the money they would collect on their facility.
Significance to my life-None- Vote no.
Health Dept Levy: They are going to build a new building whether you like it or not despite overwhelming citizen disapproval. Citizens want the two locations, so they don’t have to drive so far for services, especially those in the northern part of the county.
They either have the money in hand, or the county is going to use the remaining ARPA funds to build it. Was the existing levy a savings account for this?
The Community Health Assessment is great if you’re in the public health business. To citizens it is the same thing every year. For 50 years the population is too fat, needs to quit tobacco, drugs, quit drinking , eat better and get off your duff and exercise. It’s the same in every county in the country if not on the planet.
The hospital and the coroner already have these figures. It seems like this is nothing more than busy work to collect grants. There are not enough respondents to even call it an accurate assessment. Healthy people rarely respond. We don’t need to spend any more money telling us what we already know.
We are bombarded with this from the national, state, local officials, social media to the point where no one listens anymore until your doctor tells you you’re going die shortly if you don’t change your ways.
We do need the Health Dept monitoring and inspecting public use things and doing and providing only the items mandated by state government. Unless they issue a guarantee, they are giving up on the new building/ consolidation before election day
I am voting NO. Significance -some.
Senior levies: The one mill levy is needed and is a necessity to operate. As a senior I know a lot of folks that use this service. I don’t, but many fixed income seniors need this to survive. I may use it at some point.
Significance-important. Vote yes.
The half mill levy: This one was sold as needed to buy new trucks and equipment for the meals on wheels and “other stuff”. We didn’t seem to get many new vehicles over the 5 years for the money on this item and ended up this summer having to have the commissioners use ARPA money to buy the last truck.
Since the levy was first voted in, food cost have been out of sight and have not been funded by additional grant amounts from the state. This is another dept with too many facilities. They need to buy a couple shuttle busses and reduce the facilities to 4.
The people that operate the facilities do a wonderful job and there are no real complaints. The cost for all the facilities/operations is just too much, time to consolidate.
Significance- some- I’m still undecided.
In my opinion all of these levies are the result of the state shoving this cost on us for programs they are underfunding. Most people cannot afford any additional tax levies.
With the large property tax increase, farmers are especially hit hard with all the levies and additional tax, high input costs and low crop prices, and regulations to the point it may not be worth continuing.
It is vital to our local economy that they continue. A number of farmers being hit with costs exceeding 30k per year, just on levies. Some relief is in order for them.
Cleveland and Columbus land costs and problems for farmers have arrived here. Fixed income seniors are just as bad off. All this additional tax could force them out of their homes and cars or having to live like it’s 1930 all over again.
Many are already at that point. I still hold out hope new management in Washington can relieve some of this, but it won’t be overnight.
The last thing is, don’t believe a word from the Issue 1 supporters. It is all a ruse and sounds so great, but it allows too few appointed people to decide what will happen. Gerrymandering is a part of the American political fabric.
It actually works well most of the time and is not the evil it is portrayed to be. I just hope we can get out from under Marcy Kaptur if at all possible or we can get gerrymandered back to our old district.
Go vote, it’s your duty as a citizen!
Eric Sickel-Bryan
