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Treasurer should work to lower taxes

Posted 8/30/10

To the Editor: I have had enough. I haven’t ever considered myself a person who pays much attention to politics and elections until recently. Being someone who has grown up and lived in St. …

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Treasurer should work to lower taxes

Posted

To the Editor:

I have had enough. I haven’t ever considered myself a person who pays much attention to politics and elections until recently. Being someone who has grown up and lived in St. Lawrence County most of my life, I chose to stay in the area because of my friends, family, and familiar surroundings. I love St. Lawrence County and after reading a letter written to the editor from one of the guys who is running for county treasurer, I sat down and decided to put some of my thoughts on paper.

Every one of my friends says the same thing, “There’s no work for us in St. Lawrence County.” Most of my buddies who do have jobs work for less money than they are worth just to put food on their table and stay in the area. I pick up a newspaper each morning and like many people I know, I read the Letters to the Editor. I have seen letters from people who talk about how it’s not the job of a treasurer’s office to create jobs and they even slam the people running for trying to create jobs for local folks. I’ve also read letters from campaigners saying, it’s not the function of the St. Lawrence County Treasurer’s Office to work with other elected officials on lowering taxes. This really makes me scratch my head and wonder how I could ever vote for someone who says that creating jobs and lowering taxes is not their responsibility. I really don’t care for a politician who makes promises they don’t keep. Our national elections are filled with hollow promises, but, this new generation of local political hopefuls really blows me away. They don’t even make promises anymore, they just tell us that it’s someone else fault, responsibility, or obligation.

I think it’s odd, for anyone who wants my vote, to write the letter to the paper about all of the things they don’t plan on doing. One of the men, who are running in this election, writes a letter the other day and tells us that it’s not a function of the treasurer to lower taxes. Well Mr. Felt, I beg to differ. I believe it’s every government official’s responsibility to work to lower taxes and bring more jobs to the North Country. To tell us that it’s not your job or your function, is just a great disappointment, and from my perspective, another opportunity to palm-off your responsibilities to the people of this county.

I live in Hermon and go into Canton to do my business each day. It seems like every summer there’s a new construction project going on, whether it’s at one of the colleges or downtown, or even on highway. There’s good jobs in Canton, there’s just not enough to go around the entire county. I have to work a couple of different part-time jobs to take care of my son and to stay afloat, and I’ll be darned if I am going to vote for a guy who says it’s not his job to lower taxes and create jobs. The person I vote for better be ready to do everything in their power, job duty or not, to protect the precious few jobs we have in this county and save me money. I’ll be voting for Dave Button because he’s already shown me that he wants to keep what we have and do it with less money than the rest of these politicians who pass the buck.

Jason Bice

Hermon