I can scarcely believe it. We voted for initiative 747 and look what happened. The assessed value of my home went up 42 percent. The property tax rate is climbing 5 percent. The local governments say they are bankrupt, but no cut (reduction in the rate of the spending increase) has kicked in yet.

It was just three years ago that my property taxes doubled, to the penny. Then the politicians say they will have to cut services such as prosecuting shoplifters, what a crock! Schools aren’t even mentioned, and they take, by far, the lion’s share of the property tax money. Yet the paper has to go into contortions every year to explain why they are doing so poorly, and that’s compared to other public schools, not home schools. The amount of money spent on schools has increased 2.5 times in real dollars since

I started school, and kids are scoring much lower, the lowest among all industrial countries.

There are programs like DARE which has proven completely ineffective in nationwide studies. Cut them. I feel like I’ve been mugged. I said “no,” then I was shoved down and kicked in the head by local government. What happened to the term, “public servant,” and when did it switch to “public master”?

Scott Vanderlinden lives in Oak Harbor.