Sunday, May 06, 2007

Further Thoughts on Town Meeting

Readers of this blog may recall my ruminations on the amount of appropriations approved at West Tisbury's Town Meeting. I was struck by the attendees' willingness to spend money, considering that many of the attendees had young families. How could these young people decide to spend a couple of million dollars more on renovating Town Hall as opposed to building a new one? Why do they accept that 43% of our tax dollars go to funding the elementary school?

Well, it may be that many of those who voted to spend this money do not really know what they pay in property taxes. Most of them have mortgages; the tax payment is usually part of their monthly payment to the bank. H&R Block does well on the Island. Many of the voters don't prepare their tax return and. hence, have no idea that their tax bill has increased over 60% in six years.

It's a weird way of managing your finances. But, hey, it's their way.

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