I live and work in Bootjack and have two kids who attend Woodland Elementary. I pay my federal and state taxes quarterly, my property taxes twice a year, and state sales tax, and every day I pay additional taxes on gasoline and many other specially-taxed products. When I met with my accountant last year, and I told him that I calculate what I pay in taxes every year as being just under 50 percent, he shook his head and said, "Do it over: it’s more." I paid my latest quarterly taxes on Jan. 15, and for the rest of the month we lived off my credit card. Now I hear that despite all the taxes I'm paying the state is again over $20 billion in deficit, and the federal government's deficit is in the thousands of billions.

Last year in May we voted against raising state taxes to help cover the deficit and the state government responded with all kinds of financial gimmicks and an ultimatum that the state would close state parks, collapse the social and health safety nets, release prisoners and all manner of political bogeymen. This year, with another looming deficit, and with the state said to be effectively bankrupt by April 1, we are again hearing from state politicians the same kind of threatening imagery: a collapsing of basic support to the disadvantaged, leaving blind and elderly citizens to their own devices, and so on. The fact is, this state's government is incredibly bloated with vast regulatory programs that are inefficient, are packed with expensive personnel with salaries, benefits and retirement packages that we are all paying for through our taxes, and which actually produce nothing, but instead, make productive and profitable business in the state next to impossible.

The simple fact is, very few of us taxpayers are in a position to pay any higher taxes. If the state cannot afford its budget without raising taxes then clearly the budget must be cut sharply, so that it is affordable. In cutting the budget, we must cut the size of government, and the kinds of programs that must be cut first are those that do not directly contribute to the most basic functions of government: security, ease of commerce and industry, and education. Each program should be measured in terms of one question: can the people of the state live without it? If we can live without it, it should be defunded. What programs we cannot do without . . . let each such necessary program be redesigned to achieve a greater efficiency, and cost effectiveness, and be scaled back in personnel, resources and funding by some 20 percent.

There is no more money with which to pay for government, bloated or not. As much as we love our home and the Mariposa community, we will refuse to accept a greater tax burden in order to stay here. I am wondering if there are others in the community who feel the same. I would love to hear from them.

Jonathan Habarad