I have watched the change of the political season for the last few years wondering what good and what bad would likely come from the change in leadership in our area. There have been a few things that have been encouraging and we should all recognize that change can help us meet the future.   Change can also take us backwards.   One of the current popular political phrases is “take our country back” and has been met with the counter-phrase “take our country back to the 16th century.” Both amusing, but sometimes going back is not a good thing. In Saluda, I have been disappointed by the inability of our leadership to see long-term and to act accordingly.  The inability to see and act long-term is a lack of leadership and government budgets are all about long-term.   Progress that was long in coming has been discarded and the proof is that the mayor and city council are now considering a $0.10 (~25 percent) increase in the tax rate.   The fact that such an increase is being considered is a serious sign of weak leadership, vision and understanding of how the burden of government should be managed.  At the risk of being redundant, I am going to “plagiarize” from my own article a couple of years back (you’ll have to figure out what part is “plagiarized”).