To the editor:

What a lovely metaphor: Matriarch Sue Hack and her loving family (city of Lawrence) gathered around the kitchen table deciding who should foot the bill for their botched budget. “I know! Let’s share our debt with all of our neighbors! They’ll gladly pay for our mishandling of funds.” Tough toenails, gang.

There was plenty of money when you voted yourselves outrageous raises. You wasted a hefty amount of cash hiring consultants to study projects that then got tabled (and will cost even more when you can find the intestinal fortitude to make a decision about them later).

Lesson to be learned: Do not spend more than you have. Many of us grew up with the ethic of “cash and carry.” If you can’t afford it, you don’t purchase it. The local taxes are already excessive. What are seniors to do? KPERS hasn’t given retirees a cost of living adjustment in over six years. What Social Security giveth, Medicare taketh away. Many of us must learn to adjust our budgets annually. So must Lawrence.

It’s bad enough we’re all having to pay for “The Decider’s” little war in Iraq (not the country that attacked the WTC, y’all). We don’t need another Wal-Mart. We don’t need more recreation centers. We don’t need a new library. Just keep the unruly teen population out of the basement, and there is sufficient room (and quiet) for serious patrons.

This is your problem, City Commission. You fix it. Internally.

Barbara Paris, Lawrence