'No' to Winfield Township roads

Seven times in the last decade, Winfield Township has sought a tax increase to bolster its road maintenance budget. It has gone to the ballot four times in the last two years alone to seek approval of a 2-cent rate increase per $100 assessed valuation to fix and improve roads. And voters have yet to give the township their OK, although the township is back on the ballot again this Feb. 5 with the same request.

We could understand such persistence in seeking this tax increase if encouragement can be taken in the margin of defeat being so small in these referendums. But that's not the case. The ballot proposition in April 2007 was rejected by 64 percent of the voters. Sixty-seventy-percent voted no in November 2006.

The message is clear - though it's not getting across in Winfield Township. After such a pattern of failure, why not go for a 1-cent increase, or a half-cent increase, anything but what has been a losing proposition?

We recommend a no vote on this proposal.