Archive: Opinions

In reading the news these days, I'm struck by how infrequently I see the word 'citizen'.  It seems to have been universally replaced by the term 'taxpayer'. Ths is especially true in discussions of public services like roads, schools, or, as in present case in Lansing, sewers.

I am a taxpayer: I own property in Lansing; I buy taxable goods in Lansing; and I register my dogs and my car in Lansing.  I have even sent one child to Lansing schools for a brief while.  But primarily, I am a citizen with 'unalienable rights' guaranteed by America's founding documents.  And, as we are frequently reminded, with those rights come certain responsibilities.  Paying taxes is certainly one of those responsibilities.

But there are deeper and more fundamental responsibilities of citizenship.  The philosophical founders of our liberal democracy thought of these as the 'Social Contract', the responsibility we each bear for managing the public weal and keeping our lives and those of our fellow citizens from being, in Hobbes's words, 'nasty, brutish and short.'

With this as background, you can understand my dismay at the widespread reaction among my fellow Lansing taxpayers (here I'm loathe to use the word 'citizens') against the town-wide plan for sewer districts.  Under the most recent plan, it is true that some will have access to sewers sooner than others, and it is also true that all the citizens of the town will pay something for sewering the town, even in the first phase.  But those in Tier 1, those who will have access to sewers sooner, will shoulder the greatest financial burden, and the burden, even for them, does not outweigh the benefits they'll receive with access to sewer.

There is also the matter of the public weal, even for those in Tier 2, who must pay something but who will have to wait for the sewer to reach them.  (I happen to be one of these folks.)  The Lansing Schools will be among those first served by new sewers.  Since the schools, in the absence of sewers, will have to install new septic systems, this will, in the end, cost the Town's taxpayers (and citizens) millions in the form of school taxes.  And other public buildings in the Tier 1 area will also be served by sewers and, thus, citizens of the Town will benefit.

Finally, there is the environmental benefit of sewering the town and eliminating failing or marginal septic systems, an important source of nutrient pollution of the lake and surrounding watershed.

I urge my fellow  Lansing residents to think of themselves as citizens, rather than simply as taxpayers.  It may be true that some others may, at least in the short term, be getting more benefits from the shared contributions we all make to the public weal, but accepting that and contributing toward the maximum benefit for the whole is what a real citizen does.

Tom Vawter
Lansing

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