You and I to Pay Higher Taxes.............why?

Last night was our yearly tax classification meeting in town, or what I like to call the yearly battle between the homeowners vs businesses.  And yes, the selectmen crunched the figures with furrowed brow while the residence made their way to the podium to try to convince the elected to tax the ever dwindling businesses at a higher rate.  We usually attend but were unable last evening.  You guessed it, taxes will be increased 4%.  The following is yet another letter to the editor written by my husband.     

     The, as Howie Carr calls it, dreaded private sector incomes, not only don't increase anymore, they continue to plummet....if they exist at all.  This trend is going to continue for quite some time.  How then can we continue to increase taxes by 4%?  The justification for these increases is that the cost of government demands it - that's true.
    The problem is that there is absolutely no correlation between what happens in the real world and what happens in government.  When the economy was good there was more tax revenue collected - government spent more.  But when the economy continually declines, there are less and less tax dollars to support government.  Yet, government spending continues along without skipping a beat.  There should be some kind of mechanism that automatically kicks in to reduce spending when the revenues CANNOT keep pace with the cost of service.
    Instead of trying to balance the tax load between business and residence, (we are both) why don't we stop this UNSUSTAINABLE spending.
    Just because citizens or governments want something doesn't mean that we can actually AFFORD it!