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Sales tax will allow city to keep status quo
To the editor:
I would like to take the time to address the letter to to the editor about the sales tax may be needed to save Blytheville.
I happen to live in one of the neighborhoods mentioned that looks like war-torn Europe back in the '40s. Abandoned buildings have plagued my neighborhood for the past 15 to 20 years. Passing a sales tax is not going to get these houses torn down. Passing a sales tax is not going to save Blytheville. Who wants to live next to a burnt-out house? I don't, but it would be foolish of me to think if I went and voted to tax myself some more that the city will come revitalize my neighborhood.
When the (school) millage increase came to a vote the taxpayers voted it down because we could not see building a new gym or a place to eat during such hard economic times. We knew that the basketball goal was 10 feet no matter where you played. Kids don't need a big place to eat, just a place to eat.
The citizens don't feel like during these hard economic times that passing a new tax on an already overtaxed population is going to save Blytheville. It's going to hurt us. The IRS gave options on what to do to, but our council thought it would be better if we ignored what the IRS thought and just taxed the people some more. I want to encourage all of the readers to not be scared that the city is going to fold and the fire and police department will be shut down or cut. We have a surplus at the water company that is so large they can loan money! We have farmland, we have projects that I have mentioned in earlier letters that are failing miserably that need to be closed.
What it boils down to is that we need the tax so the IRS will go away and everything can go back to being just as messed up as it was before. That's what the tax does! It lets our city government continue to make bad judgments with no repercussions. They can keep robing Peter to pay Paul, and when it catches up to them they can just tax us or add it to are water bill.
The city could be dying, you say. I could not agree more, but its not just our city. It's cities all across America. They are dying because government does not listen to its people anymore. Making the already poor people of Blytheville poorer is not going to save the city. It's going to drive more people out, causing it to die even faster.
Good citizens, do not be intimidated or scared -- force our city to make a change. Vote NO!