To the editor:

Perhaps you’ve heard that counties all across America are letting formerly paved roads revert to gravel because they can’t afford to maintain them. Anti-tax mania is so strong in some places, that people would rather endure bone-jarring drives and windshield-cracking rocks than pay to maintain a decent infrastructure.

Can’t happen here, you say? Well, if the people who are fighting Proposition 1 get their way, it can and will happen here eventually.

County services have already been cut to the bone. If Prop. 1 fails, it will have direct consequences on our quality of life: fewer sheriff’s deputies, parks unmaintained or even closed, fewer crimes prosecuted, reductions in emergency and public health services.

Defeating Prop. 1 would be a false economy: We’d lose out on federal and state grant money that would be recycled into our local economy. Less law enforcement means more crime. Reductions in public health programs mean more strain on emergency rooms. And letting parks go to ruin makes it that much more costly to repair the damage later.

Nobody likes to pay taxes, especially in tough times like these. But the increase is small or even nonexistent due to falling assessed values. And in voting for Prop. 1, we can take a stand for the kind of livable place we’d like our county to remain. The alternative isn’t pretty.

Please vote YES on county Proposition 1.

Rob Lewis

Langley