I was very interested in last week’s story, “Yarmouth residents organize to oppose proposed school budget.” At last people saying something about what seems to be unbridled increases in the school budget.

No, I’m not some sort of miscreant. I’m all for children getting top-quality education and believe it takes a village to do it. Still, over the years, I’ve watched as the Yarmouth school budget, almost 70 percent of the property tax rate, increased a few percent a year. All that has to be said is that it is for schools and children, and parental instinct kicks in, and the budget is overwhelmingly approved.

Superintendent Dollop has noted that “no one likes to see higher taxes.” What is truer is no one likes to see unnecessarily higher taxes, especially when personal income growth is not keeping pace or in some cases is stagnant. No one likes to see their budget proposals criticized or cut, either. I know; I worked in institutions for 30 years. My budget proposals were cut often. Somehow with much effort and some innovation, we always managed to do more with less. Yarmouth schools should be very capable of doing this, too.

The proposed school budget should be sent back for another look and a little belt tightening. Incidentally, my cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security and pension income for the last two years has been zero percent.

Harry Rombach
Yarmouth