[Nathaniel Brown] ~ Dear friends and neighbors,
I am writing to you to ask you to vote “no” on the pool.
This is not because I don’t want an aquatic centre in Princeton. Much to the contrary, I think it is a wonderful idea, and if a fund drive were to be organized, I would be among the first to donate to such a valuable project.
No, my reason for being against the proposal is that the financial burden falls very unevenly on different people. It comes down, I believe, to a moral issue: whether one can vote for a proposal that will cost some people two, three and four times as much as it will cost others. In my case, I own four parcels; happily, only two are “improved”, but a potential $722 increase in taxes is in my case crippling – and I have friends with three parcels…
I can’t vote – but if I could, I want to emphasize that I would be happy to vote for an aquatic center if it effected everyone evenly. In that case, I would not feel that a sizable number of people were being taken advantage of, but that we were all shouldering the same burden. As it is, the pool will be built heavily on the backs of some, and far more lightly on others. This is exploitative, unfair, and immoral.
Please vote against the pool. Once the initiative fails, we can – and should! – come back to the table and devise an equitable, fair and even-handed way to finance the centre. We should all be asked to contribute the same, no more, no less – and that I am very ready to do A pool is a great idea and it would be a great asset to Princeton and the whole area – but this is a grossly inequitable way to go about building it.
I ask you to vote against the initiative as it now stands.
Nat
Outram Echo 
Posted on September 17, 2011
0