Letter to the Editor

City should settle IRS debt within existing city budget

Thursday, February 9, 2012

To the editor:

It is a mystery as to why the mayor is so set on getting the 1-cent sales tax passed without any thoughts of settling the debt with the IRS within the existing city budget.

The 2012 budget indicates a surplus of $1,236,042 and the 2012 budget indicates a $1,577,129 increase over the 2009 expenditures. These two figures indicate a minimum of $2,813,171 toward settling the IRS debt without any sacrifice to the city functions. There are many dollars still available that could be used toward paying off the city debt, such as the 1/4-cent sales taxes for the Parks and Recreations, the 1/4-cent sales tax for the Fire and Police Departments (the buying of four new police department cars, the purchase of computers for each police car, the hiring of a technician for electronic devices, the purchase of a new fire engine, to name a few expenses that could be postponed).

The bottom line is that of making a choice between taking additional money, approximately $24 per family per month from the poor, unemployed and elderly citizens, by passing the 1-cent sales tax, which most likely will never go away, or using existing city funds by tightening the expenditure of funds and using surplus funds to pay the IRS debt.

Why is there such a push to pass the sales tax when the city doesn't know what happened to the money and appear to care less? This problem is approximately 11 months old and the citizens do not know what happened to $3.2 million. Who is to blame for the disappearance, or was the episode just a normal small-town error. Remember, some City Council members were employees during this period of time and everyone employed by the city are suspects until the problem is solved.

Ray Clouse
Blytheville