Thursday, April 30, 2009

Kenai Peninsula Borough- Broken Brains Lead to Broken Budgets

The condensed version of the story is:

Dave Cary was elected as the mayor of the the Kenai Peninsula Borough as a "cut taxes and reduce the budget" candidate. (Strangely he also claimed as mayor to have the ability to protect your gun rights. I don't think he was pandering at all with that addition to his platform.)  He won.

Previous to that election the voters of the Kenai Peninsula had repealed a sales tax in a vote put on the ballot by the Alliance of Concerned Taxpayers (ACT). 

The mayor is now planning to reduce property taxes on us over taxed Alaskans.  

Which leads to the great republican plan of underfunding government to destroy it. The borough is facing a budget shortfall. The mayor has said everything is being scrutinized for cuts. Education is not being spared and he has proposed a reduction in the school districts budget. The outcomes of that will be great. Less education is what we need now in this world. That will help the growth and quality of life for people left on the Peninsula. 

The impact on my kid's education is already being felt. Due to this budget turmoil, his school has had to delay and possibly not hire a replacement teacher. This is in a K-12 school with a teaching staff of 4. By this time of the year good teachers that are looking for new schools probably have jobs lined up for next year.  We will still hope that our second or third choice turns out to be an adequate educator for our children. Thanks a bunch Dave and Alliance for Concerned Taxpayers. You are really making the Peninsula a great place for families. 

Much in this post needs further exploration, such as:
Who are these ACT people?
What is a lifelong educator, our mayor,  doing minimizing education?
Many of his supporters have fingered teacher unions as the culprit. Does Dave get a retirement fought for by unions?
How does a borough mayor protect your gun rights?
Who voted for Carey and are they the Senior Citizens who live here 5 months a year and are always showing up for the subsidized lunch program?
Why don't grandma and grandpa want their grandkids the best education they can get? 
How does our tax burden compared to other boroughs and counties?
What is it like to live in a progressive state?


 

1 comment:

freeper said...

Carey is, as he's always done, grandstanding and pandering to the knuckle dragging wingers,

he's constantly repeating Rovian talking points as if that constitutes his being able discern what might be a coherent policy stand on any given issue.

Hopefully the Assembly will put Carey in his place.