Do you want adequate police and fire protection? Do you want a successful education system? Do you want a safety net for the disabled and unemployed? Do you want roads, highways and bridges that don’t crumble under your wheels? Do you want clean air, ground and water enforcement? Or do you want taxes too low to pay for those services? We can’t have it both ways.

We have to decide anew what kind of government we want, and through government, what kind of society. We decide that partially through the programs we support through our taxes. What we’re deciding is more important than liberal or conservative ideology. We’re being asked to decide the very nature of our community. And make no mistake: the society we’re willing to pay for is the society we’ll get.

The wastefulness shown by the Vancouver City Council in raising the salary of the city manager in these times does not alter that fact. That our local government is out of touch with the downward spiral currently experienced by many residents does not negate the fact that taxes are what pay for essential services. We can throw the out of touch out of office. We shouldn’t demolish government itself by refusing to fund it in the process.

Joel Littauer

Vancouver

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