I always enjoy sitting down to my morning coffee and reading The Morning Star three times per week, thank you.
Unfortunately, I have been finding over the past few months that I can barely get past the editorial pages before this red haze descends over my eyes and I feel like I am going to drop dead from apoplexy.
It just seems to me that every week or two (at my age maybe it is every month or two), I read one more article about another special interest group that wants the Vernon area taxpayers to pony up the funds to pay for their hobbies.
And as usual, they try to convince the taxpayer that their project is going to be the panacea that revives the area and all for the paltry sum of only $18, $19, $20, $70…..more per year on our already grossly out of control property taxes and utility fees.
Personally, I don’t have any beef with the special interest groups per se, although, I wish they would go somewhere else.
My philosophy in life has always been: Ask, because all anyone can say is no.
The people that I lay the blame on for all of this runaway spending is our city council.
Before they are elected they always promise fiscal responsibility, but the reality is that within 30 days of taking office ,they have developed Stockholm syndrome and instead of leading from the front, they get pulled along from behind by the city staff and every special interest group that migrates to good old easy pickings Vernon.
When it comes to increasing taxes, our town council just can’t seem to put the two letters N and O together. Of course, if they do give the citizens a chance to vote on a project the referendum is more often than not going to be held at a time that will ensure that the votes from the collective special interest group will win the majority, just like the vote went on the multi-million dollar running track that is being built outside of town.
It’s almost like rigging the vote in the special interest group’s favour.
So I have decided that the only way that I can keep living in this city and hopefully keep some of my friends who are still here, from moving out of the Vernon area to some other more fiscally favorable town, is to form my own special interest group.
I would like to seek taxpayer funding to form a club called the Vernon Social Club, for which I think a clubhouse could be built for anywhere from $5 to 15 million or so. I mean it would only mean a paltry $15 to $30 or so more dollars a year on the average property tax.
The whole focus of the club would be to carry a good supply of taxpayer funded high quality Scotch whiskey and Cuban cigars.
Now, I will guarantee the Vernon area taxpayer that my special interest project will bring more tourists into this city than all of the other special interests projects combined.
So come on Vernonites, can I count on your support?
M.C.R. Krien
Vernon
