To the Editor:

Any of us who thinks that Alexandria cares about its people is sadly mistaken. Just take a look at the 2015 proposed city budget and you’ll soon understand why this city’s priorities lie elsewhere. Look at the proposed cuts while the city continues rampant spending on a metro station, large legal and planning staffs, BikeShare program and premature waterfront landscape plans. The losers are: school children, families, the elderly and underprivileged. Let’s start with seniors who will lose Senior Taxi money as well as tax relief if their homes have any value. How can we turn out backs on these vulnerable residents? And once again, the libraries are on the hit list — the very institution that complements learning, introduces children to books and provides Internet services for those who cannot afford their own. Libraries are used by low and middle-income families while studies from the Pew Charitable Trusts show that just two percent of the population use only E-Readers. The rest of us like books in our hands. In our libraries, families can check out movies allowing them to avoid expensive theater tickets or movie rentals.Certainly we can cut some city workers since employee cost is a big driver, but government’s primary role is to keep its people safe, so why are firefighters, deputy sheriffs and closing 12 satellite police stations on the list? And why when we live in such a dense, highly populated area, would you cut Parks and Recreation monies? Or support for our hospitals and the cancer walk? These are all “people” programs! To reiterate, we need government and city council members who will put people first. And I don’t mean bicycle riders who comprise a very small percentage of the population: young, well-educated males who don’t need libraries as much as the rest of us do. And, we should certainly question the large legal staff when we still seem to employ outside counsel a lot. As for school spending, we continually shuffle the deck but never fix the underlying problem of educating our young people. Cutting library spending surely isn’t a step in the right direction for doing so. Instead of numerous principals and assistant principals, we need less of our dollars going to administrative staff and more to the classroom in the form of great teachers instead of just technology. So, if the schools are to succeed and our taxpayer dollars are to be effective, excellent teaching must head the class.As a resident who doesn’t mind paying taxes, but objects mightily to taxes being spent for the wrong things, I implore all of you taxpayers who live here to make your concerns known now. Do not just rubber stamp these budgets year after year without question. The city is whittling away at those very things that make a city worth living in.

Linda Couture

Alexandria