Letter to the Editor

No sales tax until public gets answers

Saturday, January 7, 2012

To the editor:

I have gone on record in the past as supporting the tax to pay off the IRS, but after reading the recent articles in the paper and having spoke to numerous citizens, I have changed my mind.

The thing I hear most, and I agree, is that the citizens want accountability. The current city politicians don't seem to be concerned about finding out the truth about where all that money disappeared to. It's a worry that if we vote for the sales tax, there won't any pressure being put on the administration to solve this mystery. I believe we should tell the IRS to help us find the responsible parties and we will only be responsible for our portion of the tax money.

I agree with some who say that Barrett Harrison should be removed from his current position where he has access to funds that can be squandered too.

The city should also clarify where ALL the city funds are coming from and itemize where all that money is being spent. To my knowledge, all the money goes into a general fund, even if it's supposed to be designated to one certain area. The city should use the Courier News to publish the 2012 budget for all to see. And separate accounts should be set up to eliminate shoveling money from one department to the other.

We have a bus station we spent a million bucks on, so Main Street Blytheville could move into it and use it as their office. We have a 1/4-cent sales tax designed to take care of parks and recreation that has not been used as it was intended.

There's no wonder that the citizens have lost faith in our leaders' ability to govern our city. Their past record has put a bad taste in our mouth. I do understand that our current mayor came into office and discovered all these problems staring him in the face, and I wouldn't want to be in his shoes, but he must understand that the citizens need and deserve answers. As our mayor, he owes us that much. The City Council has that same responsibility. It's their duty to find the truth.

If we pay the entire debt to the IRS, what then? Will they still go after the ones responsible? And if they get the ones responsible, and make them pay, where will that money go then?

I challenge the Courier News to dig for answers for the citizens of Blytheville. It seems to me they would want to know more about the tax issue and the city budget. And we rely on the Courier News for information, and if I was a reporter, I would be hounding everyone involved until I found out all the information and satisfy all the questions that the citizens may have and not allow the administration to have a free reign over our city and all the money it takes to run it.

One note on recycling, instead of paying Nuway to recycle for us, why not convert some of those old factories into recycling centers and do our own recycling? We could use jail labor or community service people as some of the labor and probably come out with a profit when it's all said and done. We won't need a new truck for recycling. And since we don't own the trash trucks anyway, why should we have to buy a trash truck for recycling?

When you go vote on this tax bill, take everything into consideration.

As far as I'm concerned, we should tell the IRS we will not pay them a dime until we get resolution. And NO, they can't have our golf course because it was bought and paid for by the citizens and is being kept up by the citizens of Blytheville with the 1/4-cent tax, and if the income would have been separated properly, the golf course would not have shown a loss and the missing funds would not have been hidden as easily as it was.

Thank you to all who are concerned about our city.

William Masterson
Blytheville