Speakout 4/1

Call 471-6636

In April, the voters of Scott County will be asked to extend the one-half cent law enforcement sales tax that will expire in 2008. The residents of Sikeston supported this tax in 2000 in order to build the new county jail and office space for the sheriff's department. The county commission and Sheriff Rick Walters want to extend that tax in order to help fight crime "in our county." I support Sheriff Walters, and appreciate the honesty and integrity he has brought to his office. However, as a Sikeston resident I cannot support the extension of this tax. The county law enforcement sales tax generates an annual revenue of approximately $1.6 million. Seven hundred thousand dollars of that goes to retire the debt incurred to build the jail and office space for the sheriff. The remaining $900,000 is used for "law enforcement" in Scott County. Sikeston contributes over two-thirds of the $1.6 million collected, even though we only make up about one-third of the total number of Scott County residents. Our Department of Public Safety provides all of our law enforcement in Sikeston, including misdemeanor, felony and juvenile investigations, with almost no assistance from the county. Sikeston pays the county $35 per day to house our prisoner in the new jail even though we paid approximately two-thirds of the cost to build it. Between property taxes and the law enforcement tax paid to the county by Sikeston residents and businesses, Sikeston is paying most of the law enforcement expense for the entire county, but receiving no benefit. Sikeston should vote against the extension of the county law enforcement sales tax. Instead, the residents of Sikeston should pass a city law enforcement sales tax. Then Sikeston could build a new jail and police station, which we badly need, and pay for Sikeston's increasing law enforcements costs. Until the county commission is willing to send some law enforcement dollars back to our community, Sikeston should vote No on the extension of the county law enforcement sales tax.

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Scott County, wake up. Don't vote for the one-half cent sales tax increase. The commissioners first said for a few more years, but now they would like it permanently. We can't trust them. One commissioner said there would be no new blacktopping in the county this year. Feb. 28 issue of the Standard Democrat said this. In March 7 paper another commissioner commented the Highway Department would be on the road a lot more doing grading and blacktopping. Whether it is over old blacktop or not, it is new blacktop. We need to have limits of two terms for commissioners and county health offices. There was plenty of money for blacktopping near Oran before commissioner retired. People wake up. How many of you have had your take home pay doubled since 1999? Some have had their take home pay tripled since 1995. Just check your financial statements that come out in the paper each year. One lady's salary increased from 1995 from $11,000 to over $26,000 in 2006. That doesn't count for clothing and other expenses. One lady cleared $9,975 in '99 and now in 2006 cleared over $18,900, one from $2000 to over $15,000, and one from $11,600 to $19,600. They work only 37 and one-half hours per week and get more holidays off than even state workers. Go ask how many have college degrees. Granted each employee did not receive that kind of raise, but a lot of them did. The Highway Department men who do physical labor do not make as much as the clerical workers. There is no way they should have gotten only a three or three and a half percent pay raise each year as stated in the newspaper from the county clerk and commissioners. Cut out the clerical and you won't need the one-half cent sales tax. We have no law enforcement. People speed and run stop signs all the time. The sheriff should run his office as a sheriff's office and not as a business. The county has received all this grant money, why are they so short?