EDITOR: Chris Coursey's Tuesday column ("Whole lotta (budget) shaking going on," pressdemocrat.com) really resonated with me. We have heard repeatedly that California is a mess, that legislators cannot or will not fix this so-called structural deficit. The reality is that our state doesn't bring in enough revenue to support the costs that we as a society have deemed for decades to be essential to our community values.
Obviously there are some expenses that may not be sustainable and should therefore be re-evaluated. But I don't know a soul who would agree that society's ability to educate its citizens, to help the less fortunate, to ensure that children are safe and to enable senior citizens to remain in their own homes are no longer essential community values.
We need to put our money - yes, even as scarce as it currently is - behind these values, or there will be no more community for our kids to grow up in.
KATIE GREAVES
Santa Rosa
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