County is keeping its pledge on taxes

To the editor:

The debate over when to terminate the county road-and-bridge property tax because of the passage of the new sales tax is becoming needlessly heated. If the county intends to collect the tax this year and terminate it next year, then the commissioners have lived up to the commitments made during the election process. The sales-tax collections will not begin until Jan. 1 and not be returned to the county for use until sometime in the early spring. The 2006 county taxes collected later this year will be available for funding of operations during that lag period. Clarification of some of the positions may be in order as suggested by a recent editorial, but no promises appear to have been broken.

Contrary to Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones position, the Southeast Missourian has every right to bring matters of this nature into question. The newspaper was quick to give much coverage to the election process.

LONNIE G. HASTY, Cape Girardeau