Letter to the Editor

Citizens shouldn't be penalized for IRS fiasco

Thursday, September 8, 2011

To the editor:

Why should the people of Blytheville be held responsible for the actions of a former mayor's office? There are several hundred senior citizens on Social Security, SSI, disability and many unemployed that should not be penalized with a higher sales tax for the wrongdoings of this higher office.

These same citizens are not able to support a golf course that loses about $30,000 a month of their tax money.

I cannot understand why, after at least the first 6 months of no taxes being paid to the IRS, why someone from the IRS did not come knocking on his door asking questions about the missing taxes. Why wait eight years for this to be made public? A private business owner would have been charged, prosecuted, property sold, and sent to jail for less than $3.8 million.

When Mr. Harrison was elected mayor, he took the responsibility to be over every office in the city administration, to make Blytheville a better place to live and be more productive. He should have known about everything being done in each and every office.

Mayor Sanders, do what you have to do -- sell land, close the old Kress building, close the golf course, but DO consider the citizens of Blytheville that CAN NOT afford to pay a higher sales tax to take care of and cover up someone else's wrongdoing.

Mrs. P. Lewis
Blytheville