To the editor:

I was glad to see that a meeting about proposed water projects for Amsterdam and Bergholz was reported on by the Herald-Star.

As was mentioned by the meeting’s participants, water line breaks are frequent in this part of the county. I noticed that while state funding, state money and capital and operating budgets were referred to, the ultimate source of money for this and other projects was not specified.

Before money is moved around and sliced and diced, it must first be collected from taxpayers. I’ve met many public officials and civil servants and they do a good job, as good as you’ll find in the private business sector. But, in paying attention to the details we sometimes lose sight of an essential fact: Public spending starts with taxes paid by all of us in the form of income, sales, gasoline and other taxes.

I sincerely hope this project gets completed, and when it does it will be with taxpayer money spent for the benefit of taxpayers. It will not be given out in a grand gesture by someone wearing a crown.

John Rucki

Amsterdam