Every time I go to see state representative Sharon Steckman, it turns into a teacher complaint session. Sharon says the same thing she had always said since she has been a state representative. The teachers always want more taxpayer money. If the Mason City schools need money why did they build a twentysome million dollar sports complex and raise everyones property taxes? Why would the schools pay a PE teacher 70 to 80 thousand dollars a year for a nine month a year job with two or three weeks of paid vacation. The teachers need to take a money management seminar. Property taxes and sales taxes are regressive taxes. They hurt the poor and the elderly. Sharon Steckman says nothing about raising wages or getting affordable health insurance for the working people. She says nothing about bringing in good paying jobs. If Amanda Ragan wasn’t telling her what to do, Sharon would be lost. The teachers need to take a money management seminar.
David Brown
Mason City, Iowa 50401
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Mr Brown needs to take a class in state government. Property taxes and sales taxes affect teachers also. In case he doesn’t know, teachers are real people who have families and pay taxes. They need to make a living also. When he says “Steckman says nothing about raising wages or getting affordable health insurance for the working people” he is forgetting that teachers are some of those people. Their wages have not kept up with inflation or with comparable jobs in the private sector for decades. The state took away their right to bargain for better wages and benefits a number of years ago. If the Republicans in this state were worried about the things Brown is, then perhaps the $2 billion surplus we have in this state could be used to lower property taxes and sales tax. It is the Republicans who have raised both. Perhaps he needs to quit voting for them because if Kim Reynolds weren’t telling them what to do, they would be lost.