No double dipping on county taxes

To the editor:

I would like to address the allegations in an editorial suggesting that the collection of 2006 road and bridge property taxes along with the new sales tax in Cape Girardeau County amounts to double dipping. There is no double dip taking place.

Property taxes are paid one year in arrears. You pay taxes on property you owned on the previous Jan. 1. The property tax that will be due and collected this December is for property owned Jan. 1, 2006. That money will be available for use by the county in 2007. The road and bridge tax, now that the sales tax has passed, will be set at zero for the year starting in January 2007. At this same time the sales tax will begin to be collected. There is a time lag in which the sales-tax revenue will be sent in to the state, processed and sent to the county. Due to this time lag, the county will not receive any of the sales tax money for up to three months. The county can expect to collect approximately 75 percent of the new sales-tax revenue by the end of 2007. This money will be available for use during 2008. No road and bridge property tax will be collected for 2007 or any subsequent year thereafter.

The editorial cast a serious salvo of charges against our county commissioners, which was unwarranted with proper research. When you pay your property taxes at the end of 2007, there will be no road and bridge tax on the property you owned on Jan. 1, 2007.

DAVID L. SEABAUGH, Jackson