I Look On My Life

I'm moving into my 79th year of life on this planet and, with that, some lifetime milestones seem now attainable; such as, my wife and I will be married for 50 years in the spring of 2014; also, in the spring we'll have lived in our north end home for forty of our fifty years of marriage. 

Brought to Pottstown as an infant of six months old in year of my birth,1935, by my parents who moved to Pottstown when my Dad got a job as a draftsman at the Bethlehem Steel Company; I have lived the rest of my life in or around Pottstown.

I'm retired from the landscape nursery business, my lifetime profession, but retirement, for me, is not what I had imagined it to be. It's not a cross country trip in a convertible with wind through the hair, or a World Wide Cruise bellying up to a buffet after buffet. Mine is something quite different.

My home of nearly forty years, instead of being a godsend, has become as a drag wrapped around my neck. This drag is property taxes, taxes that are increased almost yearly for public education. I believe in education fully. I am a product of the Pottstown School System, in fact, I'm an Alumni Honor Roll Recipient. 

I am, though, completely opposed to property taxation to raise money for education, rather, I recommend a more broad based tax that is equalized across the state. Retirees, like me, have little means to raise extra money to pay for increases in property taxes. This quandary results in elderly's flight to adult living somewhere else other than their homesteads where, except for taxes, living costs are lower. 

I understand our state legislators are talking about a change in the property tax law. We need to put the pressure on our elected officials to get this job done, done effectively and finally. We retirees have a declining voice in legislative action, but, some of us think and take time to make our thoughts heard. Please become one of those with a loud voice!

Ronald C. Downie