Local Tea Party Activities

Last Tuesday (11/23) Jennifer Levitz wrote an article "Tea parties turn to local issues." It has a few paragraphs on a tea party group in York, PA saying people there are upset about teachers getting pensions when people are out of work, and mentions a Philadelphia tea party group planning to monitor local government activities. What really drew my attention, however, was this passage:

Earlier this month in Troy, Mich., tea-party activists delivered a petition to city hall, seeking to force officials to keep the Troy Public Library open without a new tax.

"We really are embroiled in a big controversy here in Troy," said Janice Daniels, co-founder of the Troy Area Tea Party.

Local voters narrowly shot down a proposal for a library tax on the Nov. 2 ballot. Now, the library is scheduled to close in June.

The tea-party members believe the city can find money for the library by cutting compensation packages of municipal employees, but Mayor Louise Schilling said that "the suggestions made by the tea party are not realistic."

"If you're going to have services, you have to pay for them," she said.

Now, that's scary. Losing good teachers who go to greener pastures and closing public libraries are bad for education, bad for property values, and bad for community cohesion.