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City Council: Love thy neighbor as thy self
To the editor:
It is my opinion that you all (the Blytheville City Council) have made up your minds concerning the $3.7 million IRS debt payment by passing a 1-cent sales tax for the city. I am sure that this letter will not have any affect on your efforts toward passing the proposed 1-cent sales because you have received many letters from this individual pertaining to ignoring the laws of the state and there have been no changes in attitude by government officials toward operating a government by the people, for the people and of the people as far as can be determined.
I read the home page of the MCAEOC this date and discovered that at least two members of city government are members of the MCAEOC organization. I find it a little ironic that two members of city government are part of an organizational function that strives to find methods to help the poor, unemployed and handicapped citizens and at the same time voting to impose an additional 1-cent sales tax on the same citizens who presently can't pay their bills. You can't be a fence-sitter in this world setting. You have to be for or against mistreatment of the poor and needy. Placing the importance of an ill-gotten golf course that was not properly planned, designed, advertised and is losing approximately $200,000 per year for a 10-year period over that of helping the poor is a decision that you as a human being, not that of a city council person or mayor, have to make.
I listen to the news on a regularly basis and these are the so-called facts concerning the future for the poor, unemployed, sick and elderly citizens of Blytheville:
The present payroll tax decrease will expire this year and the payroll tax will go back up to the regular value of that before the present administrations payroll tax reduction.
The Bush income tax reductions will expire this year and the income taxes will increase back to the position before the Bush tax cut.
The cost of living will increase, as has been the case for the pass few years.
The state and county taxes will increase as the county has already proposed a millage increase in property taxes.
Blytheville has a large part of the population living in poverty. One special study stated that approximately 62 percent of the citizens living in Blytheville are living in poverty. That means that the majority of citizens do not have sufficient funds to even live a decent life. Passing a 1-cent sales tax would put an additional burden on the poor and elderly of approximately $24 per month per family (that is a debt they just can't pay).
There are many benefits gained by helping the poor, not by word or print, but actually doing something about the situation. Blytheville has a high crime rate. When you don't have sufficient food to eat and care for your family, anything goes. There are no rules and regulations when you can't survive in this society. A large cause of crime is poverty. Fix the causes of poverty, and you lower the crime rates. Are there avenues to eliminate poverty in Blytheville? You bet your bottom dollar there is, but there has to be change in government. You are government and you must change the manner in which government operates. In the eyes of government, every citizen is the same and has the same rights as anyone else. Is that the manner in which the city of Blytheville operates?
In this individual's view, it appears that you think more of a golf course that is losing money and has cost the citizens including the poor $12 a month per family for years so that 200 or 300 wealthy individuals could play golf. You desire to again penalize the poor by suggesting a 1-cent sales tax so as to bail out someone in city government who most likely stole $3.2 million.
A state statistic concerning taxes stated that the poor paid approximately 10 percent of their total income on taxes while those individuals making over $360,000 paid approximately 6 percent of their income in taxes. Let us citizens of Blytheville change our manner in doing business and bring all citizens into the decision-making process. You will be amazed at the change in this community when you insert feelings and concern for others in your daily decision-making process.
I sent each of you a copy of the FY 2009, 2010 and 2011 budget data. This individual sees many dollars in those budgets that can be reduced without hurting the city operations in any manner. When you are making decisions for the benefit of all citizens, the decision-making process becomes much simpler.
Remember these statistics from the US State Department. Unemployed over a 19-year span above 10 percent. People living in poverty (government standard -- very low income) In 2007, 28.4 percent.