Here come the threats on the IRS tax

To the editor:

Here we go again with the same old, same old. The threats have started -- if you don't do this, we will do this. Now we are getting threatened if the increased sales and use tax don't pass, we will raise your water bill. I'm so sick and tired of the city officials using that water company against us. They already have an increase on the water sewerage, sanitation for the next five years started back in 2009 and then imposed this $5 surcharge which is tacked on our water bill for the ADEQ consent order. Tell me, why is it when the city can't get something out of the citizens they use the water company against us? Answer this question for me -- if some of the citizens can't afford to pay their water bill now, what makes you think that if you increase it they will be able to pay? How many times can you increase the water and sanitation without some recourse to you doing so? There must be some law to protect the citizen from this happening.

Then we have the mayor threatening cutting services. Wow! What services does the city provide that they can cut? If we pay for the services, we better get it or they will be setting themselves up for another lawsuit. If you want to cut services, cut yours -- reduce your pay and the city attorney's pay, cut the contributions to the 5013Cs which we can not afford to pay, including their salaries; they have other avenues to get funding. This is what I don't understand. You don't have a problem with increasing more debt on to the citizens' already strained income, but you do have a problem with stopping some of the unnecessary spending or use of revenue you do have.

Mr. Weld, I also read your article in the opinion section. I strongly disagree with you that the fact the 1-cent sales and use tax is the the least painful way to get this IRS problem behind us. No one whats to do what is right, only what will hurt citizens in the long run. Everything keeps going up and there seems to be no end to it. The citizen is caught in a catch-22 situation and really don't have a say. As for the lien, give the IRS the water company so the city can stop using it against the people. Is there a lien on the water company too, being it's property owned by the city? I can't speak in the City Council meetings, but you want to pay for something that I had absolutely nothing to go with.

I haven't reaped any benefits from this city. I live in an area that was annexed into the city, and we have no regular police patrol out here. It's like being the redheadded step-child. I was in the Walmart in line to pay for some merchandise and a lady was in front of me being checked out. This lady had only got $21 of grocery and used three different cards to pay for her purchase and still didn't have enough to pay for it. This is the reason I'm so against this tax and I wonder how many children's meals will be cut because of it even for only 15 months. Their parents' buying power will be cut, but I guess that don't matter that the city will be taking food out of these children's mouth. I can't see anything more painful than that. We can buy new police cars and instead let the ones we got do us. Change some of the way you do any waste and you might be surprised at how much money could be saved from the city's budget. No one wants to address that outrageous budget. It is because you are too incompetent to do so.

This probably won't get printed either like my last letter to you, but at least you got to read it.

Lorrain Mitchell
Blytheville

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mitchell's last letter appeared in the Feb. 12 edition of the Courier News