Editors note: These are remarks made by Chester County Commissioner Jerry Lowe prior to the vote on the county budget Monday night and submitted by Lowe for publication.
Dear Editor,
At our March meeting, the commission voted down by a large majority a request from Southern Prep to give them money. We did not think that tax payer money should be used to fund their school. Now, the six commissioners on our budget committee have put $10,000 in the new budget for that school. I don’t think this is right. It should have been a dead issue when it was voted down the first time.
When I learned about this, I mentioned it to one of those six budget committee members, and I was told that we don’t need to be talking about this but that we should just try to keep it quiet. I disagree with that. I think that we should definitely be talking about it. If this is the way we are going to conduct business, then there is no reason for the commission to vote on anything. When someone wants money for something, they can just go to the budget committee and ask them for it and get whatever they want.
If we vote to approve this resolution and the county general budget, then we are voting to give tax payer money to Southern Prep. I don’t think we need to be in the babysitting business. All of you need to really think about this before you vote. If we agree to this, I think we are just asking for trouble in the future when other businesses start asking us for money, too. So I think we should reject the resolution and the county general budget unless the $10,000 for Southern Prep Academy is removed.
Sincerely,
Jerry Lowe
