To the editor:

How can anyone say that the village of Calumet is thriving when the council eliminated garbage service, and we struggle with snow removal, and a lagging economy?

The Downtown Development Authority (DDA) this past year swiped $22,000 in village property taxes, and $38,000 from a special tax that allows them to capture the difference in taxes between today’s property values and those of 1992. This limits funding that could be available for essential municipal services, and it’s been going on for decades.

These funds are meant to promote the economy of the village, yet most residents see no benefit from it! How’s it thriving when we spend thousands of dollars on flowers, baskets for the flowers, advertisements, and grants when we can’t provide basic public services? A $5,000 advertising campaign featuring broken sidewalks and collapsing houses won’t bring anyone here.

Furthermore, those they’re hoping will move to the village, adults my age and seniors don’t have the capital. We’ve lost our economic mobility through capitalism’s theft of wealth from the American worker. In our village alone nearly 50 percent of us live in poverty according the Census Bureau and the American Community Survey.

What I propose we do is eliminate the DDA altogether. Despite what you may have read, the DDA is not required to exist by state law, nor is its dissolution prevented by it.

Be wary of the motives of those who maintain the status quo when it involves your money. Read Public Act 57 of 2018, and you’ll see that nowhere does it say that the village must create a DDA, and nowhere does it say that a village can’t dissolve it.

That money should be used responsibly for public services like garbage removal and public transportation, not on wilting flowers and grants for their friends.

Even if it couldn’t be dissolved there are other ways to save or more responsibly handle taxpayer money.

Public transportation is essential to both population growth and a booming economy within the village. It’s something we desperately need along with garbage and snow removal.

Working with the county to provide a county wide public transportation system will create jobs throughout the area and tourists, students, and residents alike will save immensely on transportation costs thereby allowing them to more effectively engage in all aspects of our economy.