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SAGINAW TRANSIT STARS MILLAGE IS A DANGEROUS & COSTLY PROPOSITION

Dear Editor;

   Saginaw Transit has called for a millage election on February 22,2005 to raise $6.2 million (3 mills for 3 years).

      Compute your own personal cost:
Your Property taxable SEV = $_______
    Times $3.00/$1000 of SEV = $ _______
    Your cost for each year = $ ________
    Your cost for 3 years = $ __________

    Why should City of Saginaw property owners alone bear the financial burden to pay for a bus service that serves the whole county?
Say NO to the new STARS millage and force Saginaw County to pay its fair share for public transit and create a new county-wide bus system.
    

Did you know that a recent audit showed STARS lost track of $5,000,000.00 worth of buses?
      

Did you know that property taxes are figured in as a part of the rent you pay?
 

Did you know the same old Board of Directors is still running STARS? (Current Chair and Treasurer).
    

Did you know that STARS, with its reputation for empty buses, probably serves less than 400 regular riders each year at a cost of $8.3 million a year? That is slightly more than $20,000/yr each. That's enough to buy each regular rider a car every year, plus pay for their gas. Public transit is important, but it must be reasonable.
   

Did you know that STARS claims nearly 900,000 'riders", but counts ridership by each 'transfer'? A round trip to and from any destination could total 4 to 6 transfers.
Total riders numbers should be divided by 4,5, or 6 to avoid misleading the taxpayers.
Taxpayers actually spend well over $10 for each one-way trip to support STARS, which has become nothing more than a political patronage jobs program disguised as a bus system.
   

Did you know that four members, including the chairperson, of the pro-STARS political campaign committee called Friends of Saginaw Transit, don't even live in the City of Saginaw? In fact, one lives in Bay County and another in Midland County. Why wouldn't they support a tax; they won't be the ones paying it.
 

A year ago the voters rejected STARS as a corrupt rip-off. What has changed? What steps has STARS taken since that time to try to bridge its credibility gap?

redictably, rather than clean up its act, STARS has instead spent $10,000 of taxpayers money to hire a professional public relations firm to improve the image STARS wishes to project.

Demand more! Ask questions. Be informed before you vote on February 22,2005.

Allan C. Schmid
Vote NO on STARS
2510 W. Genesee #4
Saginaw, MI 48602

Editor's Note:
   
        One of the problems with the City of Saginaw is that it continues to act as if the population it services still exists at the levels it did 20 years ago.
      

Readers and city leaders should also ask themselves how they can afford to pay a new school bond millage on top of a STARS millage and then hope to pass a public safety tax, or lift the property tax cap later in the year, when socked with one wasteful spending measure after another.
    

And why is it that Saginaw never has enough money to adequately clean snow from the streets, yet can afford a costly millage election one year after voters already spoke upon the topic and rejected it! 
     

Until the perpetrators behind the STARS rip-off are sitting in jail, do not be so foolish as to give them more of your hard earned cash to squander.
   

The Review resoundingly urges you to vote 'NO' on the STARS MILLAGE election on February 22nd. 
                                       
The Review welcomes your letters and comments. Send all correspondence to: Letters to the Editor * Review Magazine * 318 S. Hamilton St. * Saginaw, MI 48602 or e-mail to acidpen@sbcglobal.net

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