Do you want to keep your own money, or
do you want others decide for you where your money should go? If
you don't vote, what right do you have to complain when you
discover that your paycheck keeps getting smaller and smaller
every election cycle? If you want to keep more of your own money,
then vote! As a matter of fact, if you want to keep more of your
own money, then get several of your friends and family to the
polls, and tell them to vote down the levies to keep more of their
own money too! Those who benefit from the levies are sure to vote
- they're voting themselves your money. For levies to
succeed, they must exploit the apathy of the ordinary voter. If
you care about your own wealth and the wealth of your children and
grandchildren, then there are several levies on the ballot in
Muskingum County this November 6 that should grab your attention.
- West Muskingum Local School
District income tax
- Starlight Programs Training
Centers
- Muskingum County
Center for Seniors
- Mental Health and Recovery
Program
- Recreation Center for Harrison
township
- Dresden Village levy
- Philo Village levy
- Rolling Hills Local School
District income tax
- and several fire protection
levies.
[click here to see the extensive list for yourself]
Our district is having tremendous
financial difficulties with a high home foreclosure and bankrupcty
rate, the loss of businesses overseas or to other states, and one
of the highest state and local tax systems in the nation (www.TaxFoundation.org).
The ever-increasing number of parasites who want to exploit our
wealth and property is one of the main reasons for our financial
crises. Voters must not be apathetic about the steady loss of
their income to the beneficiaries of all the state and local taxes
and levies. If the levy proponents want our money, they should
provide a competitively priced service or product and ask us
nicely; but to try to coerce it from us forcefully using the
prosecutorial powers of the government is legal plunder and
insulting.
We must not allow our emotions to be
hijacked by those who are appealling to a good cause to raid our
bank accounts. Voting against a levy is not voting against a
cause, but is voting to keep your own money. If you want to give
your money to a public school, for instance, please do so. But if
someone would rather spend their money on a private school like
Rosecrans instead of a public school, they should be free to do so
without fear of civil penalty.
Levy proponents are exploiting good
causes to try to get the levy passed. For instance, consider the
Center for Seniors levy and the Mental Health and Recover levy.
Who doesn't want to help seniors or the mentally ill? However,
voting against the levy, it could be argued, can also help
the seniors and the mentally ill. Consider the many seniors in
our district who do not employ the services of the Center for
Seniors. Should those seniors be forced, upon pain of fine and
imprisonment, to give to the Center for Seniors when they do not
benefit from those services? Seniors often are on a fixed income
and are strapped financially through high medical bills, rising
food and gas costs, and property taxes.
Can senior citizens afford these levies?
Consider the many people who would
rather support a senior citizens ministry at their church
instead. Consider the many families who are working hard to
provide for their own elderly parents or grandparents, often at
great financial cost and strenuous personal effort. They may not
want to employ the services of the Center for Seniors - should
they then be forced, upon pain of fine, property confiscation, or
imprisonment, to give up the money they would have spent on their
own loved ones to the Center for Seniors to care for others?
Many of these causes may merit your
support; however, the vast majority of the time a government
bureaucracy is the most inefficient and wasteful means of
accomplishing some good. Private organizations, churches, and
civic groups, with private donations given freely by free
Ohioans, can accomplish the same thing with much
more effectiveness and at much less cost. One can want more
and better services for seniors, for children, and the
mentally disabled, and yet be completely against this being
accomplished by a government bureaucracy or a state-dependent
organization.
If there are levies on the ballot
worthy enough to merit your support, then please give to
them. But give your own money! Voting for the levy does
not mean that you're simply giving your own money to support this
cause, but that you want to force your neighbors, upon pain of
fine or property confiscation, to give to causes to which they
would not give willingly if they had the choice. There are
several worthy causes on the ballot, and those causes should be
supported in an even greater measure than they are now,
but they should be supported by free Ohioans who give voluntarily,
not those who are coerced to give or threatened with stiff
penalties. If not enough citizens would give voluntarily to
the programs to keep the programs financially afloat, then maybe
that program or bureaucracy isn't worth as much to this community
as its beneficiaries think it is.
If you are not registered to vote, the
deadline for registration to be able to vote is October 9.
Contact the Muskingum County Board of Elections at 455-7120, or
visit 205 N. Seventh Street in downtown Zanesville to register.
Remember, Ohio law allows absentee
ballot voting without any excuse whatsoever, so don't bother going
to the polls - vote by mail! To get an official request form for
an absentee ballot, or to find out what information you need in
your personal request, please visit the Muskingum County Board of
Elections at or click the Secretary of State's website at
http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/PublicAffairs/VoterInfoGuide.aspx?Section=16.
It's your paycheck! Vote on
November 6!
Alliance to Reform Education Funding
