A pretty sweet deal

To the editor:

My wife Stephanie and I moved to Pike County in 1984. Since we are both avid readers, we immediately acquired Pike County Public Library cards.

I estimate that over the 25 years we have lived here, between us we have read about four books per week. If we purchased those books at paperback price, we would have paid well over $25,000 (over $40,000 at today’s prices). Instead, they were free minus our annual library donation. It’s a pretty sweet deal.

Right now, the library system needs our help.

Increasing demand for library services—spurred by the continuing surge in our county’s population—has surpassed the library’s operating budget. The library is currently running on reserves, which will not last long. There is no increase in sight for Pike County’s annual library allocation of $200,000, which has been frozen at that amount for almost a decade.

On November 3, we will have an important choice. We can vote “yes” on the ballot question to preserve and improve countywide library services, and accept a very modest dedicated library tax of about $35 per year for the average homeowner. By doing so, we will ensure that library services will continue and extend countywide. If the measure does not pass, we will all experience significant cuts in library services, including cuts to branch hours and possibly branch closings.

For me, voting “yes” is a quality-of-life choice that makes sound economic sense. For about $35 per year—less than what a tank of gas costs these days—we can access an awesome assortment of DVDs, CDs, books, educational and recreational programs for children and adults, job search information, small business resources, and so much more.

Pike County library services are an excellent value, and I want that sweet deal to continue—for my wife and me, and for all county residents.

Putting the fox in control of the healthcare henhouse

To the editor:

I am well aware of government dysfunction, so I am not inclined to think that our lawmakers will come up with the best of the best plans for health care.

However, if people are of the opinion that health care “reform” should be left to the insurance companies to decide, I’ve got a few foxes I’d like to sell them to guard their hen houses.

The insurance and pharmaceutical industry has spent billions of bucks lobbying Congress since Reagan de-regulated corporate accountability and spawned what is now a lobbying industry.

Not only has my government welcomed them with open arms and big suitcases for all that cash, but industry titans of pharmaceutical and insurance corporations are sitting on congressional panels writing the bills and laws that are killing us, insured and non-insured alike.

Please people, don’t buy in to Fox snooze-style reporting and confuse unbridled theft labeled as “capitalism” with “democracy.” As a capitalist society, we have good laws that allow people to own their own property and accrue wealth and savings. But our laws have become perverted to allow 21st-century robber barons to dictate how we live and die.

Corporations shouldn’t make or shape laws that affect our lives only so they can make obscene profits. This is not democracy. This is murder. If Congress doesn’t pass a single payer bill or public option in the coming session, we’re doomed.

For those of you who insist upon repeating Fox’s fairy tales of pulling grandma’s plug, please just google either “single payer” or “public option.” Make an informed decision.

Every single industrialized nation in the world has some kind of government-run health care except us. Scare words like “socialism” have been used to confuse and anger people about government-run programs. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have been the backbone of this country for generations. I don’t see any of these so-called anti-socialists complaining about these programs or returning their Social Security checks.

Kevin McDaniel

Hurleyville NY

Stop overspending

To the editor:

I can see that fiscal irresponsibility is no longer confined to Washington, DC and Albany. Sullivan County has decided to accept bids on a project for a training building to the tune of about $483,000 dollars. At the same time, the county is struggling with a new budget and is considering layoffs and tax increases and they are now moving forward on a new jail project. Let’s stop the foolishness, put the training building on hold and look for alternatives. I know of two newly renovated school buildings that are sitting there and not being utilized as well as other possible options that exist in the county. Although this may be a worthwhile project, the time is not right for such spending given the other challenges before the county.

Do more with less?

To the editor:

How lucky can we taxpayers be? Our school taxes increased by only 7.5 percent in a year when enrollment declined again, the school bus shop was sold and tax saving economies were developed by the Sullivan West Board of Education, at the direction of the superintendent. All these benefits occurred at the same time we learned that the inflation factor is so negligible that seniors will be comfortable with less spendable income in their social security checks for the next two years.

Translated to 2010 when enrollment is again predicted to be less than this year, we expect to dispose of at least one of the unneeded school buildings, the board will again prove to be economy-minded during the budget process, and costs of products will be the same given the inflation freeze so recently discovered. Sound similar to this year’s formula?

Based on the record of increased taxes every year, this may be a year of the double-digit number, say 10 percent?

Sarcasm aside, should not the next budget be developed as it is going to be for the rest of us? That is, reduction of expense and/or do more with less?