The Herald-Sun reports that parents were begging the Orange County commissioners to raise taxes at last night’s hearing on the proposed budget. OK, fine. But please tell me why a key fact – that the commission chairman told the crowd the county has raised taxes for 20 years in a row — was relegated to the very last paragraphs of the story. Here it is:
At the beginning of the meeting, Board Chairman Moses Carey told the group of several hundred people that Orange County has raised taxes for 20 years in a row.
“There were some perceptions expressed at the last meeting that the county commissioners had cut school funding,” Carey said. “We don’t want anyone to leave here this evening thinking that the county commissioners have cut school funding because that is not the case.”
Where in the world was the editor, who should have told the reporter this piece of information is key to the context of the story and, therefore, should be much further up in the piece? My ASU journalism professor would have given me an “F” for not recognizing that.
