Find another way to support our school systems

Well, it's getting time to vote again! The schools and everyone are getting ready to put tax levies on the ballot. Muskingum County and surrounding counties still have a high unemployment rate and there seems to be multiple pages of home foreclosures, and sheriff sales in the newspapers. Our cost of living is skyrocketing and everyone else wants a piece of our checks. A fair amount of our property in Muskingum County is agricultural. The price of diesel fuel, farm machinery, grain, seed, fertilizer and labor is driving up the cost of beef, pork and dairy products. Farmer sees very little, if any, of the increase in these products. More of our farms are being carved up into housing developments, shopping centers or being bought out by foreigners, as more farmers can't afford to continue to farm. I can only imagine what the property taxes are for the larger farms. Most of us can't afford to pay higher property taxes.

The time has come for us to quit giving foreigners tax breaks for business. Which are passed from one member of the family to another one, that way they continue to get tax write-offs.

Lost jobs, due to Lear closing part of its plant, Longaberger's down-sizing, and Greif Brothers, American Homes and Pretty Products closing their doors, are causing financial hardships to many families in Muskingum County and the surrounding counties.

This affects all of us. Even if we ourselves have jobs there are many in our families who don't.

It isn't that we don't care about the school systems; it's that we don't have the money for more taxation of any kind. More and more of the jobs in Muskingum County are disappearing and the school systems are in financial difficulties. Maybe it's time to change the structure of our school systems. It seems like the cuts they're making aren't enough. They are cutting busing and educational employees. If a few of the higher paid administrative positions were cut maybe they'd afford to keep more teaching and transportation staff. It's time that another way is found to support our schools.

R. Kaye Spencer
Zanesville