Editor:
Our municipal water system has three components: storage, treatment and distribution. Storage is essential since our peak water need occurs during the lowest seasonal supply. However, our storage capacity is too small to meet our needs. In truth, we only have two-thirds of a water system because it meets our needs only two-thirds of the time.
Despite providing only two-thirds of a water system, the SCRD expects us to pay 100 per cent of our taxes.
A gardener who cut two-thirds of your lawn or a dentist who fixed two-thirds of your cavities would not get away with billing 100 per cent.
What happens if we tell the SCRD, “We’re mad as hell and we won’t pay any more”? What if we deduct one-third of our water tax? This would be civil disobedience, which has a long and honourable history in democratic societies. It would not have the moral inertia of Mahatma Gandhi or the gusto of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant,” but it would shake up the SCRD.
If I deduct $100 from my property taxes to cover the missing one-third of my water service, I will suffer consequences. I will be fined $5 on July 3 and another $5 on Aug. 31. But as long as I square up by Sept. 24, the SCRD will not sell my property to recoup the outstanding tax. I will pay $10 for the privilege of being civilly disobedient with no risk of tear gas, billy clubs, or incarceration.
To paraphrase Arlo Guthrie, if one person walks into SCRD and says, “I’m mad as hell” and stiffs them $100, they will hardly notice. If three people do it, they’ll think it’s a movement. And if 1,000 taxpayers say, “We’re mad as hell,” the SCRD will spend so much time keeping track of all those $5 fines, they’ll feel the need to actually do something. That’s worth my $5.
Bruce Woodburn, Sandy Hook
