A tax increase at this time?

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/10/16/1016schooltaxes_edit.html

This editorial was written to pursuade Austin voters to approve the "Austin Independent School District Tax Ratification Election Proposition No. 1", which will increase the tax rate to 3.9 cents per $100 valuation, so that Austin teachers may receive a raise. The writer of this editorial is hoping to convince middle to upper class tax payers to pass this proposition. Throughout this commentary they let the reader know about the recent and past budget that the Austin School District has had. The writer goes on to explain how Austin approved a higher budget that drew more money from the fund balance. Finally at the end, a numerical example of how the new proposition will affect someone was revealed. While the writer is trying to pursuade the audience to vote for this proposition they also state that the timing for this couldn't come at a worse time. The writer uses a lot of examples and evidence to educate the reader on the current Austin School District budget, however they fail to give any sources on where they retrieved their information from, leading the reader to possibly question their credibility. While reading this article I felt torn between deciding on whether I would vote for this proposition or not. I do agree with the writer in that teachers should receive a pay raise, however I feel that the writer could have done a better job at convincing the reader to agree as well. Asking tax payers to increase the money taken out of their own paycheck at a time where our economy is hurting and having it go towards someone else's pay raise is probably not on anyone's priority list. In today's society people have the mentality of doing things for others only if they receive something in return. This editorial was written to only reveal the teachers' benefits. I do think that this is an important issue and that the writer has somewhat of a decent argument, but I feel that they should have given more creditable evidence to help support their editorial.