The voters in Minot, Mechanic Falls and Poland will be asked, on Sept. 13, to approve an RSU 16 budget that will subject them to two years of significant tax increases.

The $700,000-plus increase will include luxuries the rest of us in this horrible economy can’t even dream of. While many of us are either losing our jobs or accepting pay cuts, the budget will have raises for teachers and administrators.

A lucrative Cadillac benefit package the rest of us can’t imagine even contains as many as 20 sick days a year. How much money could they save if their “overworked” high school teachers had more than 18 students in a classroom? When I was in school, and when I talk to teachers in other schools, 30 students is the norm.

Perhaps we would all be more willing to accept their excesses if they achieved results. Sadly, our student test scores are woefully lower than other area schools and state guidelines. When our students go to college they require remedial educational assistance to catch up to their contemporaries.

If they wish to increase taxes and place an additional burden on struggling families, I want them to show me that the money is going to a worthy cause.

Unfortunately, they cannot.

I will vote no for the third time, so our school board will finally get the message that taxpayers are not a bottomless money pit who can pay for their fiscal irresponsibility.

Coleen Balogh, Poland