To the editor:

I’m wondering if the 33,282 people who voted “yes” on the 37 percent tax hike for the Mehlville Fire Protection District knew these “FACTS”?

Mehlville Fire Protection District em-ployees are paid 39 percent to 56 percent more than the same workers in adjoining fire districts. That the taxpayers are liable for $2,334,000 in unused sick pay.

I guess there wasn’t enough room on the district fliers, which you paid for, that were crying out: “We need your help” or on the signs, paid for by district employees, that informed us it was: “The difference be-tween Life or Death?” Remember this is the same district that watched personnel costs rise 50 percent in a little over four years, then burned through $10 million in savings and watched two attempts at tax hikes fail.

So instead of cutting salaries, they cut services, taking an ambulance crew off the streets. That to me is most significant: That the district is more concerned about unrealistic salaries and benefits than services to the public that is paying them.

To everyone who just paid your property taxes, don’t you think you and your tax dollars deserve a little more respect? Are you tired of a Board of Directors whose campaigns are endorsed, donated to and campaigned for by the same people they are supposed to be watching over?

Now those are some “FACTS.”

E. Ryan

Concord