Letter to the Editor

Tighten the belt

Monday, April 29, 2002

In response to the city's upcoming financial difficulties, one only has to look around any day of the week and see all the new vehicles that city employees are driving to see where a lot of the money has gone. I'm not talking about police cars. I'm talking about the innumerable new, best of everything vehicles being driven by all of Tim Bridges' crew. When private business begins to have financial strains, it cuts back - no major expenditures, no new unnecessary vehicles, no raises, no bonuses, employees contribute part of their health care, etc.

I see the drums beginning for another tax increase. Citizens can't stand any more. The city needs to tighten its belt and get lean and mean like all the rest of us have to during tough times.

Also, how much has the city expended in one tax dollar to run beautiful new roads through Plantation Acres? We have roads you can hardly drive on (Applegate, for instance). Yet we do these magnificent new roads for developers.

I don't mean to be negative, but the average citizen has had it with spend-spend-spend on the part of government and then go back to the citizens for even more money. There must be an end.

A concerned citizen of Sikeston