When should a tax rate ever be charged on a set dollar amount? Never. Budgets should be calculated, evaluated and apportioned into a percentage rate of assessed value of one’s property, attempting to have tax revenues reach the estimated shortfall amount, yet fluctuate with economic conditions.

In the backward thinking of government, they strictly look at end result revenue, but never consider the consequences of their actions and predict only upward growth. They all expect to gain young families, when it’s well-known that nearly half of millennials remain single, many live with their own parents and prefer urban life. Where will this massive growth come from?

Everyone knows recessions, market crashes, housing crises, wage stagnation, etc., all happen. How will your 20 percent tax hike affect you if we have another housing crisis, when your home value decreases, at the same time your property tax increases?

What will happen when the taxes exceed comparable areas, and newcomers choose to steer clear, opting for less costly homes. Residential areas would soon look as vacant as our commercial areas, and the nice roads would lead nowhere. Excessive taxation causes residential loss, see California, causing towns to die quickly.

If 10 percent is enough for Jesus, why must the town require 20 percent, when it far exceeds the projected shortfall? No one spends other people’s money as carefully as they spend their own. Case in point, the wasted $35,000 for this special election, when it could easily wait until the scheduled election, in November.

No one can predict the future, and we all want to support our town at a reasonable percent, not an outrageously disproportionate amount. How about using common sense, when taking “our cents,” rather than nonsense.