Opulence of new hall unnecessary

Village Manager Bill Dixon and finance director Thomas Kuehne say that unless revenues from taxes and fees increase significantly, higher property taxes will be dumped on already over-burdened Arlington Heights residents.

This on top of Todd Stroger's outrageous sales tax increase (we will no longer shop in Cook County) is just too much. They say the extra funds are necessary to pay the $1 million annual salaries and benefits for the new firemen hired last year.

Perhaps the cost for the coming year would have been easily paid if the trustees had lived with the furniture from the old village hall (Horrors! the village president's desk was 40 years old) instead of spending $1 million on new furniture. The old stuff evidently wasn't in keeping with the opulence of the new hall.

But I suppose if you can keep reaching into the taxpayers' pockets, fiscal responsibility isn't necessary.

Sheila F. Baker

Arlington Heights