Perspectives and priorities

     Had dinner at the local steakhouse Saturday and had to wait for 25 minutes to get a table. By the time the four of us were walking out the door, the wait looked to be an hour or more.
     Lots of customers.
     The local economy is not good, but it must be not all bad, either, on the whole.
     Oh, it's bad if you're one of those kids getting on a school bus at the motel in Florida that they showed on 60 Minutes Sunday night.
     The motel is on the same road as Disney World. Lots of money being spent at Disney world, cars going by all the time full of happy Americans going on vacation.
     But these motel parents lost their house in the real estate crash, and the Dad chose to live in their car for awhile rather than split up males and females to separate family shelters. He did day labor until they could afford a deposit on two rooms in a motel. Not the only homeless people living there, though. So many families had lived the same story that the school system created a bus stop at the motel.
     It's tough on the 11-year-old daughter. Embarrassing.
     Another kid, a boy 13, said he used to be told he talked too much, now they say he doesn't talk enough. He has matured a lot in a very short time, he said.
     The family of five was about to lose the motel rooms, too, so Dad swallowed his pride and made a sign on a piece of cardboard and stood at the stoplight. It said Family of Five, please help.
     And the teen aged boy lost all his stuff -- video equipment, games and other things that were auctioned off when the family could not come up with a payment on the storage unit where they had stashed family photos and everything else for what they hoped would be a temporary situation.
     A woman in a fancy car stopped and heard the story and said she'd be in touch. A week later, he had a job. Not much of a job, but better than standing on the street with a homemade sign, and they keep the motel rooms. For now.
     Things are bad for those Florida folks, and all over the country. Including here in Carroll County. But there is a stark reality that is getting too little attention: This is one of the consequences of a growing gap between those who have and those who are barely getting by.
     Enjoying dinner at the steak house does not qualify you as just getting by. I was aware of that, watching that 60 Minutes piece Sunday night.
     I know people like these.  I came from such people. I've worked alongside them and been in Little League and Scouts and shopped in the same stores with them. I've lived in homes like they lost, and I remember a time, 40 years ago, when I wondered if I was going to be able to stay in a house.
     And it occurred to me that what we spent on dinner was about the equivalent of a one cent increase in the county tax rate.  Makes me wonder how many people will join the motel family if we cut the tax rate because we don't want to continue to fund some local programs in Maryland and Carroll County. Will we be seeing the school bus stopping at the motels on Route 140 and Cranberry Road?
     It's really a choice we have to make.
     My income has never been anything but middle class. My wife and I are now retired, and we just hope we have enough saved to last us the rest of our lives. We're as watchful of taxes as anyone.
     But I can dig a little deeper to keep the Carroll County family together if I have to.
     I can go to the steak house two or three less times this year to keep teachers in the classroom, keep schools from going downhill.  Or four times or six times less, if need be.
     I know the county is seeing less income, and facing financial challenges. Tough choices have been made for the past three years, and more need to be made.
     We can keep from hurting people if we maintain perspective and priorities.
     Tax dollars are the public's money and we choose and hire people to make policy on how to make best use of it.
     That public money can be a little like the water from the well. It gets pretty dry now and then, and you have to conserve, but if you shut it all down and lose the prime on the pump, you have real trouble.