To the editor:

The duplicitous rhetoric (Journal-World, July 4) being scoop-shoveled by Rich Minder out the door of USD 497’s spiffy executive offices is another disgusting example of the increased squealing at the trough of public money now that said funds are in short supply. Minder is trying to sell the board’s ongoing monument-building as an economic development initiative, replacing the shopworn “for the kids” (it never really was) with “investments (in) human capital.”

Minder and similar-minded officials need to pay very serious attention to reports such as on page 3A of the same issue, highlighting layoff risks to state and local government employees as public budgets from coast to coast go belly up in an economy that remains in decline.

Public money is being wrested by taxation from a public that has less and less of the resource. Squeeze a few more bucks to feed the school board’s fatuous dreams, and there’s less to be spent on stuff that generates sales tax revenue. Factor in lost income taxes due to unemployment or underemployment, and lower property valuations, and you have even less revenue at all levels of government.

Taxpayers often have to cut back until it REALLY hurts. Taxing authorities must begin to do the same. The J-W would do a public service by printing the votes of individual board members on fiscal matters. Elections are coming, and voters need to ship a lot of the current herd off to market!

George Pisani,

Lawrence