This letter is in response to a letter written by John W. Benoit, Rangeley, published Oct. 3, relative to the “Palesky” tax-cap measure.

He criticizes both the town manager of Farmington and a Lewiston High School student for not coming up with alternatives to an asinine proposal.

A budget cut by half to a third because someone has a personal grudge practically shuts a town down? That’s the alternative.

Rangeley, as does Eustis, has a town-meeting form of government. If a resident doesn’t like the budget, they should show up at town meeting and vote it down. What could be more democratic than that?

Citizens complain about their taxes and then complain because they are not receiving a specific service they feel they should have. If you want services you have to pay for them. If you don’t want to pay taxes then you’ll go without the services.

If the Legislature, past and present, had effectively addressed the burden education costs put on the municipal budgets, there would have been no need for this tax-cap idea.

I remember writing to Sen. John W. Benoit on Oct. 1, 1997, and begging him to address that fact. I still have a copy of that letter and his reply. One should not criticize others when one is partly to blame for the problem.

Sandra S. Scribner, assessor,

Eustis