Many reasons why this voter said no to tax hike

Jon Noland had this letter published in the April 16 Dispatch/Rock Island Argus. It also appeared in the April 20 Quad City Times. ..... marks paragraph breaks. "I moved to Rock Island County 14 years ago. I consider that decision to be a very bad one. There are more layers of government in Illinois than any other state. We are financially destitute. ..... A large majority of residents would leave if they could. We visit our governors by going to prison. Our bloated county board ignores our vote to downsize. Our courthouse faces massive financial hurdles even as board members -- until told to stop -- accepted mileage payments to perform their civic duty. Rock Island leaders dump taxpayer money down a rathole as they try to force the Big Island project through. ..... Why did I vote no on the school tax? As long as the tax spigot remains flowing, there is no incentive to economize. I pay an enormous property tax bill -- where does that money go? Obviously it didn't go towards infrastructure, so it must have gone toward pensions and salaries that on average are higher than Iowa's. We were told this increase would only go towards infrastructure, but how was that guaranteed? Why do we have so many districts? San Diego has one district that administers many more students; where is the school board or superintendent suggesting consolidation? And even though the courthouse issue is not directly related to school infrastructure, it really is because funding comes from the same pile of money schools are trying to reduce with their tax. ..... There are rumblings about a fourth attempt. Why not start making hard decisions to make do with the money you have? It's the way we citizens have to live."