Letter to the Editor
CLINTON —
I find myself compelled to take issue with Jennifer Graf’s column in a recent Herald.
I assume the gist of the article is that our city will lose $8.5 million in taxes provided there are no additional state funds to fill in for the revenue change due to the Governor’s proposed 40 percent cut to commercial and industrial taxes.
I was pleased to read that the state funds mental health. However, I was a bit astounded when I read our tax monies also fund domestic violence and sexual assault. It should be pointed out to Jennifer that the latter two items might be good places to start trimming for city budgets (along with city council salaries!)
I was also amused about her comment that no future or present city council would be able to avoid severe cuts. I wonder if she perhaps meant paper cuts, knife, axes or other sharp implements. I sometimes think our city council should be cut. Of course, I mean just reduced in size to perhaps zero in numbers.
My final observation— at last. Am I to believe, as Jennifer points out, that the value of commerce and industry in our town will be reduced by 40 percent? Shouldn’t Ms. Graf have made it clear that this is an assessed value — not the actual number?
We as citizens enjoy the right to criticize our government, but when an elected official is as poor at presenting a case as Councilwoman Graf exhibited in her article, the individual should perhaps keep quiet. Better yet, as we suggested recently in a letter to the editor, the majority of the council should resign their positions and not run again. I do like the following quote from a Chicago City Councilman, “One may be highly electable, but as to what you are doing.” I think this nonsense makes as much sense as Ms. Graf. Sincerely (but with tongue in cheek),
Duane Davidson,
Clinton
