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Restraint appreciated

Thank you to the Butler County Commissioners for not pouring hard-earned county tax dollars into the failing Kelly Autmotive Park. I have heard the recent rhetoric from Butler City and Township: taxpayers should contibute $100,000 annually to keep it from going broke.

But it doesn’t stop there. They also say the county should:

&bull Help pay to rebuild the deeply indebted and dilapidated Penn Theatre.

&bull Help relieve the city of its ongoing financial troubles.

&bull Help pay for Butler’s poorly planned parking garage.

&bull Help pay for Butler’s downtown improvements.

Really? The real issue/need is for Butler to find leaders who own up to their own management decisions and the possibly painful end results.

Priorities need to be made and funded by local government officials who planned poorly, and not the entire county.

Southwestern Butler County (Zelienople, Cranberry, Adams, Seven Fields, Middlesex, Seven Fields areas) accounts for about 61 percent of the county’s annual tax income. What money do we demand from all county taxpayers?

Regardless if you ask for tax money or “grants” at the county, state or federal levels, it all has the same source — the overburdened taxpayer.

Attributing a quote to Commissioner Dale Pinkerton, city Parks Authority Board chairman Ed Codi said that giving the failing ballpark $100,000 annually, as requested, would set a bad precedent and would encourage any and all organizations to stretch out their hands for county tax money for all kinds of projects and wants.

Pinkerton’s wisdom is correct: County government is not the Wizard of Oz, capable of solving everyone’s problems. Who owns these local problems? Not the county taxpayers.

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