Saturday, January 30, 2010

Judy Mage's Letter to the Editor 01/27/10: Voting Yes for the Middle School

Like most taxpayers in New Paltz, I am not happy at the prospect of any addition to my tax burden. I'm retired and on a fixed income and school, village, town and county taxes take a big bite. But so do federal taxes -- a huge percentage of which go to paying for past, present and future military expenses. And there seems to be nothing I can do to change this. Whereas I COULD with my vote possibly prevent any more of my income going to pay for a middle school renovation, which will not benefit me personally at all -- my son having graduated from the New Paltz schools back in 1991. But the question is: Is this where I should draw the line? And after reading all the letters and hearing all the arguments, I have decided to vote yes and I urge everyone who cares about the future of our community to join me in voting yes.

To me, the most crucial argument is this one: For the health and safety of current and future generations of the children of our community, an extensive middle school renovation really needs to be done and it is only going to be more expensive if we put it off to some distant time when presumably we would be economically better off. It's just like putting off needed repairs to our own homes and then finding that they now cost a lot more than the original estimates. In the end, I feel that voting yes is, for me, the right choice and even if it hurts, the moral choice.

Judy Mage
New Paltz

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