In response to your March 7 editorial, “Keep a lid on rate hikes,” I was especially intrigued by these sentences: “It’s because of government’s monopoly powers that our elected representatives have a special obligation to represent the people, not outside consultants or city or county employees.”

The “special interest” group to which I refer is the Oak Harbor Education Association and its very outspoken leadership. In your March 7 article, “Teachers critical of budget,” OHEA president Peter Szalai has already reverted to his usual mantra of publicly berating the community over the two years prior to the next M&O levy renewal. His quest is to hike the next M&O levy tax rate to the same level as “school districts along the I-5 corridor.”

Mr. Szalai would only be satisfied if local property owners were paying the full maximum amount allowed by law. This, of course, would make average 12.9 percent increases in water, sewer, and garbage seem paltry when compared to the increases the OHEA would wield upon all the property owners in the school district.

The Oak Harbor School District’s M&O levy is up for its next renewal in 2009. The last four-year renewal of the M&O levy granted the schools a hike that was well ahead of 3 to 4 percent additional income for each of the next four years.

The reality is, with property values having gone up so much in the last few years, a very significant reduction in the levy tax rate would still provide the school district a nominal 3 to 4 percent annual M&O levy increase above the $1.9 annually it now gets from that one funding source. At last look, the current tax rate for the present M&O levy is at about 55 cents, down from the nominal 75 cents it was advertised at when last renewed.

William Burnett

Oak Harbor