Dear editor:
My two-year-old is obsessed with two things: her pink Minnie Mouse boots and the slide at the park near our house.
Every day we hear her plead, “My boots? Boots. BOOTS!” Once we find them, her demands shift: “Swide (a.k.a. slide)? Swide. SWIDE SWIDE!”
These pleas lead to the Sisyphean task of picking her up, putting her onto the slide (“Wee!”). Up onto the slide (“Wee!”). Up onto the slide (“Weeeee!”).
This goes on for a long time.
My four-year-old has an obsession, too: a cartoon show about puppies who are somehow qualified to be first responders.
We can’t leave the house without him pointing out each and every police car, firetruck, and (his personal favorite) garbage truck that he spots.
It struck me that these things my kids obsess about—parks, playgrounds, firefighters, police cars, garbage trucks—are all funded by property taxes.
Next month, Wyoming voters will be asked to answer an important question on their ballot. Proposition 1 would cut property taxes by 50%. If it passes, it will cut funding for critical local public services that we all use, many of which my kids happen to enjoy very much.
Unlike other taxes we pay that go to D.C. or Cheyenne, property taxes stay right here in our community. You can see them in action every time you go to the library, drive down the street, visit the hospital, or simply turn on your faucet.
Property taxes are working every time I pick my kid up and send her gleefully hurtling down the slide.
I am not going to lie, as a homeowner, it’s crossed my mind that having a couple hundred bucks back in my wallet at the end of the year would be nice. Like so many hard-working Wyoming families, we live paycheck to paycheck.
But I know pocketing this money comes with strings attached, and those strings come at the expense of my community. They are at the expense of my children’s parks, their library, and their public schools. It is at the expense of their future.
In Wyoming, we invest in our future.
70% of the property taxes that Wyoming homeowners pay go to K-12 public education. This education system is one of the best in the country. Students, no matter who they are and where they are in the state, benefit from a strong, well-rounded education. This is such a core value of Wyoming that it is enshrined in our state constitution.
Public education is investing in Wyoming’s future. It is investing in our future doctors, teachers, business owners, and community leaders.
It is also one of the main reasons that young families return to Wyoming. It is the main reason why I chose to raise my kids here. I want them to get the same quality education and upbringing in Wyoming that I had.
By voting yes on Prop. 1, we are jeopardizing that future. We are jeopardizing our parks. Our fire departments. Our public lands.
We are defunding the police and our schools.
We are saying, “no thanks, I am not interested in helping keep my local hospital and public library open. Getting a couple hundred bucks back is worth sacrificing emergency services and fire departments.”
When we go to the polls on November 3rd and get to the bottom of our ballot where Prop 1 is, we aren’t just voting to put a couple of bucks back in our pocket; we are voting on what type of community that we want to live in.
That is why I am voting NO on Prop 1. I am voting for a future for my kids, my community and for Wyoming.
But I am mostly voting NO so someone else’s son can point out every single garbage, police and fire truck that passes. So they can hear another “Weeee!” from their little girl, in her favorite boots, as they send her down the slide for the umpteenth time.
Vote NO on Prop 1 for the next generation of Wyoming.
Sincerely,
Andrew Mittelstadt, Laramie
