AB Tech wants a quarter-cent tax increase. The logic is that if AB Tech builds new buildings and upgrades a few existing facilities, jobs will be created – not just for construction workers and architects, but from students who participate in a 21st-century learning environment. Good citizens have formed committees to campaign for the tax.
AB Tech is an educational institution. Part of the education and outreach has been sent out as glossy mailers. Pictures of Asheville’s mayor, Buncombe County’s sheriff, and the new director of the Asheville-Area Chamber of Commerce are provided with quotes that stress the importance of education, but do not necessarily indicate the college needs capital improvements to process smarter graduates. Some lessons, one might infer, are:
- Colored glossies are truer than affordable black-and-white prints.
- Star-appeal is not a fallacy, but it is important to set one’s own opinions, even if expert, aside for those of the powerful and beautiful.
AB Tech isn’t being political. Its home page has a hyperlink to voteforabtech.com. That site shows us how to fill in our ballots, and it shows us more full-color photos of beautiful and powerful people who endorse the tax. Hyperlinks are included for volunteering and contributing to the effort.
Due to political correctness, the public is sort of left in the cold. AB Tech cannot be compelled to demonstrate proof of poverty before it demands money from hard-working citizens on the brink of going bankrupt. Besides, the Chamber of Commerce assures us that about 1/3 of the tax revenue will be collected by taxed-without-representation tourists.
