Safety Cutbacks

When will the politicians in government realize that public safety is the public’s first priority?

They told us that if we agreed to tax ourselves last November, every penny would go to public safety. Earlier this year, they promised to restore past budget cuts in the criminal justice agencies. Now, however, they are proposing to once again reduce the levels of public safety in Ventura County.

The politicians will say, of course, that “circumstances have changed” and, as usual, they will blame someone else for the problem. Meanwhile, they will use Proposition 172 tax money to pay the salaries of do-nothing bureaucrats rather than following the will of the people.

My parents taught me when I was young that if you made a promise, you kept it. I hope that politicians who run our county government learned the same lesson. We who pay taxes and who voted for Proposition 172 ask that they keep their promise and give us a safe community to love and raise our families. If they must cut the county budget, cut bureaucrats--not sheriff, police and prosecutors.

CATHY KOCH

Thousand Oaks