Editorial: Choices are rarely simple in voting

When it comes to voting, sometimes it IS more difficult than rocket science. It certainly can be more subjective. .

Yet tha’t s what Orcas Islanders will face time and again this fall

For starters, there’s the primary ballot mailed only to Orcas Islanders last week — because the Fire Commissioner #2 race is the only one that has more than 3 candidates and there can only be 2 facing each other in the general fall election — two candidates for each race.

On the Fire Commisison #2 ballot, then, voters have to choose only one candidate among Duff Andrews, Clyde Duke and Jonathan Loop. If none of those candidates appeal to you, you can write in another candidate.

But don’t waste your vote writing in one of the registered candidates for Fire Commissioner #1 — that race will be decided between Pierrette Guimond and Barbara Bedell in the General Election in November.Don’t get confused with the candidates running for the other Fire Commissioner Position if you want to write in a candidate on the ballot mailed to your home last week.

Now, on to the county council’s proposal to place a property tax increase — also called the levy lid lift — on the ballot in November.

Even befroe the economic bust of 2008, County Admnistrator Pete Rose predicted a “controlled descent” of the county budget — revenues and expenditures. He suggested at the November 2007 Town Hall that some county departments be consolidated. And even though property values for Orcas Island have increased and retail tax revenues appear to be holding steady(as of May this year), the decline in construction permits and fees has impacted the county government to the tune of a million dollar deficit this year and a projected $720,000 next year.

So here we are with the Baseline Budget, slashing services and presenting the prospect of an unsustainable county government.

And we have good and poignant arguments on both sides of the property tax increase question: more taxes would make the island, for those on low and limited incomes; more cuts would make the islands unlivable with administration, law and justice (including enforcement), and social services such as parks, emergency preparedness, land preservation, university extension education and senior services all but stripped from the county budget.

Just as many small tax assessments add up to a large bill that is unbearable to many, so slicing into the social services that have been carefully built up leads to unravelling of the safety net that protects many in our community.

It’s a tough choice — do we ask the cash-strapped retiree to pay $45 a year so than another, even more cash-strapped senior can have a hot lunch at the Senior Center? Do we ask the farmer who struggles year after year to make a go of it to pay increased property taxes so that Extension 4-H can continue to train future farmers?

While it’s true that many instances of growth have been extravagant and wasteful, while enforcement and accounting may have been lax, the choice seems clear for the County Council this Tuesday: give the voters the power of deciding whether they will burden themselves by cutting services to the community as a whole, or by raising taxes that may never benefit them directly.

Then we’ll have the duty, privilege, burden and right to research, discuss, judge and make the tough decisions.

(Note: interviews with Fire Commissioner Candidates Duff Andrews, Clyde Duke and Jonathan Loop have been delayed due to online incompatibilities. We expect to publish them by Monday evening, Aug. 10)