I agree with David's no vote position, but for different reasons. Are we in a financial crisis across most of this country? Yes. And it could get worse. Everyone with any sense of responsibility is tightening their belts. Why are government agencies an exception? They say they have tightened all they possibly can and now it's going to put us all in grave danger if we don't dig deep and bail them out of this impossible dilema. Well, of course, that makes perfect sense to me.

I'm on such a tight budget myself, I may have to let my car insurance lapse, start cutting back on my meds to make ends meet, or stop paying my utility bill... Oh, but wait... I'll just explain to my employer that I'll need a temporary raise to at least cover my meds and car insurance until things get better. I'm sure he'll understand and agree.

It amazes me how the beast we call government always manages to devour every morsel we give it, never store away anything for the rainy days that are sure to come, and expect the people it is supposed to serve and protect to be responsible citizens and make whatever sacrifice is necessary to keep it fed. If you consider the amount of money the average citizens pays in taxes, how is it possible for governments to be so bankrupt. They want to tack on a mere 5.5% tax to your utility bills, with the exception of water? That means PG&E, Cable, Phone.... Figure out your average monthly expenses for those things, multiply by 5.5% and see what that comes out to each month. Now multiply that times twelve. Could you use that money yourself? Have you not already paid your income tax, property tax, business tax (let's not forget the emergency surcharge tax they tacked on after the '91 quake)? Have you ever scrutinized your current utility bills for taxes and surcharges that can often amount to more than the service itself? Do you know how much tax is charged on a gallon of gasoline? Did you ever think you'd be paying 9.75% sales tax on every dollar you spend?... and those are leftover dollars after you've already paid a hefty tax on the money that exists only because you went out and EARNED it!

Now if you believe that you don't pay your fair share in taxes, by all means, vote yes on measure A. But if, like me and others who don't succumb so easily to SCARE TACTICS and aren't willing to keep feeding the irresponsible beast, you believe it's time to give the governments a reality check,  VOTE NO on Measure A.

Enough with all the taxes! State, Federal, Local, County=ENOUGH!  Everytime I turn around I'm paying some old, new, "temporary"(yeah, right) tax on something.  I have no money left to pay my bills, and now I should pay 5.5% on some of those?  You have GOT to be kidding.  I even got a special tax in my mail to pay for retrofitting fire stations that is $36 a year.  My mortgage company now wants to hold a "reserve" of my escrow of $900 that I won't get interest on, and for what?  I am TAPPED OUT!  Nothing ever gets better as a result, and all you hear next year is that they need even more money. It's time for this nonsense to stop once and for all. How about they get rid of the highly paid politicians that schmooze and warm a seat all day for close to and over 100 grand a year.  Or some city council members that have nothing better to do than worry about people smoking on the streets?  I can tell you, there's a lot worse going on in Hayward than cigarette smoking!  I love the Hayward Police and wish there were more of them.  Hayward needs to take the money they need from somewhere else.  I'm sure there's some useless funds that are the special pet projects of one or more of our useless politicians.  Cut some politicians and other redundant civil service personnel.  Cut some of the useless welfare programs that just feed the problem and make people dependent on the system.  Just teaching welfare recipients the value of a dollar (hard to learn when some have never had to actually work for it) when they're shopping at Food Maxx, that they don't need every doubly-expensive name-brand version of what they buy, would go a LONG way.  They live better than I and many of the hard working people of Hayward do!