West Chicago bond issue is ill-timed

Out of America’s $14 trillion economy, government bites off 40 percent. Government’s diet consists of wealth confiscated from its citizens, and debt incurred from its bad fiscal habits. Think of an obese glutton with type-2 diabetes — that’s Uncle Sam today. Gone are the lean physique and serious demeanor of yesteryear. Now Sam looks more like Santa Claus. His siblings — state, county, and local authorities — emulate him.

Consider the plan of the West Chicago Park District to build a $15 million recreation center on Washington Street. Why, when Illinois’s unemployment rate is over 9 percent, and home prices and family incomes have plummeted, does a park district believe that what most people chiefly need is more recreation?

If someone wants to exercise, he or she can run or bike around town, or join a fitness club at his own expense, or else buy a treadmill. Leave the choice, and the cost, up to the individual. Each of us has his own priorities and preferences and particular measure of resources. Now a group of bureaucrats is proposing to charge all homeowners in West Chicago upward of $100 a year in increased property taxes, forever, whether they like it or not, and whether or not they need to stay fit.

I say to the park district: Use the budget you currently have, to maintain the facilities you already own, and leave us alone. And to the residents of West Chicago: When the bond measure comes up for a vote on the March 2012 ballot, vote it down. Ask yourselves how much of $19 million you would prefer to keep for yourselves. If anyone needs to lose weight, it’s the government.

Alexander Lee

West Chicago