Family services dept. workers will be tense The employees in the Howell Youth and Family Services Department may be a little tense around the office these days. Their jobs have been on the chopping block for more than a month, as Howell’s mayor and Township Council sought to eliminate the department in a cost-savings move. Howell’s $36 million municipal budget for 2005 will raise the municipal tax rate 5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, so residents will not be going without a tax increase. The owner of a home assessed at $200,000 will pay about $100 more in municipal taxes in 2005 than in 2004. An initial projected tax rate increase of 6.5 cents — keeping the department in the budget — would have meant a $130 increase for that same person. In order to take the Youth and Family Services Depart-ment out of the budget, but still keep it operational, municipal officials deemed that it must become self-sufficient and pay its way on grants and insurance payments. Essentially, the department will have to come up with money every six weeks to stay in operation. That is not a beneficial situation for the employees of the department or their clients. Whatever stress the department’s employees and clients are regularly under will now be intensified. Yes, these are difficult economic times, and yes, the council is right to seek out waste and pare it from the budget. Somehow, the Howell Youth and Family Services Depart-ment does not strike us as a waste of tax dollars. Six weeks at a time? Perhaps the mayor and council members would like to roll the dice and see if they would be re-elected every six weeks based on their ability to generate revenue and do a good job for the community.