Letter: Article should prompt people to get informed
To the Editor:
I read with interest your article about taxes, and trying to compare the different areas. Setting tax rates, and then trying to compare them is quite a messy venture, as the one factor not mentioned at all, is the valuation of property.
The county appraiser's office has quite a task in trying to set fair values on all properties, and then the boards have to guess what the total values will be months in advance, in order to set mill levies that will meet their income needs. If values or levies are significantly different from previous years, many people get rather hot under the collar without thinking about the whole picture, and elected officials take a lot of verbal abuse, or lose their jobs. It is certainly a daunting juggling act.
Your question was, I believe, are we getting what we are paying for? I challenge anyone to give an honest answer, due to the fact that almost no one person knows just what we get at any level, nor do we know just what it takes to get our services to us. We just see the surface, and assume that we see the whole picture.
In most cases, there are services that are provided, but if we don't use them, we don't even know that they exist, and unless we are ourselves employers, we have no idea just what wages and benefits really add up to. I don't believe that everyone should know everything, but almost all of us would do well to be better informed than we are. In our current world, being informed takes some time and effort, and you have to want to.
I've looked at my tax statement, and know what I pay, but I find it hard to say that the services are, or aren't, worth the price. I know that the total is quite a price, though most entities seem to get a reasonable amount. Those that I question, I intend to learn more about.
Thank you for an informative article that attempted to inform. Perhaps it will be an incentive for people to get a little more involved, and become aware of just what their tax dollars buy.
Jim Rippe
Peabody
