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Don't give Baldwin

board more money

So the Baldwin County school board wants the Baldwin County Commission to raise the sales tax 1 percent to make up the budget shortfall caused by the economic slowdown.

I again must ask: Where is the alleged conservative Republican financial management so boldly boasted of during the political campaigns for this board?

What did the school board — whose members claimed they were good stewards of our tax dollars — do with the tax money when we were in a financial boom? Did they not put a dime aside for a rainy day?

Heck, no, they didn't. And now that their backs are against the wall, they want to raises taxes. How hypocritical. How un-Republican.

This is one taxpayer who thinks the last thing the school board needs is any more tax dollars to mismanage. It needs to do like many school boards across this country and file a Chapter 9 debt reorganization bankruptcy.

The board won't do this because the bankruptcy court would slash its bloated administrative salaries and terminate union contracts. The filing also would lower the school system's bond rating, but what is more important — a bond rating or running the school system efficiently?

Sorry, but this is one resident who thinks the school board and the school administration have a lot of questions to answer about their management of funds before any more tax increases are enacted for schools.

RICHARD JENSEN

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