Dear Peoria County Board Representative:
The Peoria County Board will soon decide whether to ask its residents if they are willing to fund a downtown Peoria museum by means of an increase in their property and/or sales tax(es). Before the Board makes this decision, I would like its members to get answers to the following questions:
If the option of an additional sales tax is chosen, just what items/services would be subject to that tax? Food? Medicines? Toilet paper?
Since county residents will be forced to pay for the museum by way of taxes, will parking for and admission to the museum be free for all Peoria County residents---or will they have to pay for it a SECOND time if they choose to visit it?
If you are going to tax residents for a museum, why not add additional taxes to bail out other struggling cultural institutions? The Children's Museum and WTVP come to mind.
It's my understanding that taxes are levied to pay for ESSENTIAL services and institutions that benefit the majority of the people being taxed---schools, police and fire protection, road crews, etc. Just what is ESSENTIAL about an IMAX theater and a tribute to someone whose “humor” consisted of using 4-letter words to describe his illegal drug use?
In these times of rising grocery prices, rising gasoline prices, and rising CILCO rates, is it really ethical to ask low-income single mothers, seniors trying to live on Social Security, and others living below the poverty line to pay for a museum?
I don't know about other people, but if I have any "extra" money lying around, I'll give it to The Salvation Army to help feed, shelter, and clothe the needy of Peoria County rather than help pay for an UNWANTED museum in downtown Peoria.
5 comments:
My understanding is that the Children's Museum, while still fund-raising, is not "struggling."
Please give us a nice Christmas present, a big "NO" to funding the museum with public monies. We just don't need another lump of coal that will drain more tax dollars from our pockets for bricks and mortar and annual deficit operational costs for decades to come.
mouse: correct the PJStar reports on 11/29/07
Children's museum funding drags --- drags is slower or faster than struggling?
Seems there's a museum for everything these days--even things only a hundred years old are "historic" now. Personally I tend to find museums obnoxious.
I'd want to hear a good case for why a museum shouldn't be privately funded, or why it benefits those who don't pay to visit it.
Members of my McHenry County Board are talking about building a convention center and a minor league baseball stadium.
First it was my junior college that pitched a baseball stadium. When that wasn't a hit, county board members started talking about.
No referendum being mentioned up here, though.
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