Question A will deteriorate quality of life

Road repairs. The public school system. Public libraries. Police funding. Fireman funding. They all have one thing in common: they are at least in part funded by the Montgomery County taxpayers.

There is a malicious question on the Montgomery County ballot this year, however. It looks beautiful up front. It is a long way of saying there will never be tax raises again.

Specifically, Question A of the Montgomery County ballot says that it would, on an affirmative vote by seven of nine County Council members, impose a maximum limit to revenue. In other words, an end to tax increases. That looks brilliant for everyone. In 20 years, when half-a-million dollars becomes almost middle-class money, the taxes could still be roughly $5,000 per year. In comparison, the average real property tax now is $2,400 per year. Sounds great? Well yes, of course it does. Everyone hates taxes.

But lurking behind this sinister plan is a very, very likely deterioration of quality of life in Montgomery County. We have one of the better educational systems in the entire nation, perhaps the world. With a curent need of funds for textbooks and computers and tables and toilet paper and all those other simple but gradually expensive materials, what will happen when funding decreases dramatically?

For example, look at California Proposition 13, passed in 1978. Proposition 13, officially dubbed "the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation," created a limit to real property taxation. In essence, it placed a permanent restriction of raising taxes. Sound familiar? Here is the grim news: In the aftermath of Proposition 13, California's education system no longer looks so great. Before 1978, California boasted one of the nation's best public education systems. Afterward? Well, you sure do not hear about them much nowadays.

According to a study by Quality Counts 2004, California ranks 45th among the states of America in terms of education spending. Because of the need to maintain at least some decent semblance of security and other public services, educational funding gets a measly 3.4 percent of the state revenue. The national average is 3.7. 22 percent of eighth graders are "proficient or above" in mathematics and reading. That is pathetic.

Education collapses aside, the problem continues to be magnified by the potential far-reaching consequences of restricting taxes. The Articles of Confederation back in the late 18th century were an absolute failure in terms of governing the United States due to the lack of tax funding.

Montgomery County cherishes its public libraries system and its law enforcement. A lot of people shake their heads and smirk at the law-enforcement problems stemming out of Prince George's County. There is a simple reason why Montgomery County's law enforcement and fire protection agencies are so effective at what they do: funding. Funding is money, money raised from taxes that need to increase as time passes to keep up with the quickly rising prices. It does not take a rocket scientist to predict what will happen to the clean, book-stocked libraries, the trustworthy law-enforcement agencies (such as the policemen that caught the sniper two years ago) and the fire departments whose importance was displayed in full with the Pentagon attack on 9/11.

I know how money dominates the lives of everyone. But is it truly worth it to stymie the entire government from doing its job in maintaining the public services that make our quality of life so enjoyable? It is not. Vote against Question A, or brace yourselves for deteriorating roads, a deteriorating public-school system, public libraries that are even shorter on maintenance and the loss of quality in all those other public services we take for granted now.