Letters to the editor - Feb. 25

Editor’s note: Deadline to submit a letter to the editor regarding the March 6 elections is Monday. Letters should be emailed to: [email protected]

City can’t be trusted with tax hike

Can you trust the city of Clovis with a tax increase? Look at past spending to judge future spending.

Let’s go back 30 years to the public library.

When Sears vacated the building it was going to take $2 million to remodel. The city implemented a sales tax increase to raise the entire amount of money in about three years. But instead of waiting to generate the money and pay cash, the city borrowed the money and it took three years plus $186,000 interest, city records show.

How smart is this? The bankers liked the deal. Also, the sales tax did not go away when the library was paid off.

More recently, the city bought a golf course for $2.8 million. Many thought it could have been purchased for $500,000 if we’d waited a few months.

After they bought it, the city spent far more money to improve the place. And now the city admits to losing $325,000 annually on the golf course.

By the way, we didn’t get to vote on that.

The city admits to losing another $400,000 per year on the events center most of us didn’t want.

We have a nice zoo, but it would not break even if the city charged each visitor a $50 entrance fee.

Now, in the March 6 election, the city wants to raise property tax because it cannot raise the sales tax any more.

The city only has two 1/8 percent tax increase units left by law and it wants to squander those on other projects.

You won’t get to vote on these sales tax increases. They will just be implemented.

Remember, folks, taxes never go down.

Vote no to any tax increase. Vote for city commission candidates who have good business sense.

George Shuckman

Clovis

Voters should say no, no, no

I would like to ask people to vote no, no and no when we vote on March 6.

It seems like all the city wants is to raise our house taxes. It’s not fair. People work hard to get this property and don’t need to be taxed to death for it.

There are other ways to get money for everything they want done. Home owners don’t need to pay for it.

That money our taxes go up for could be used to do things to our own property and that makes more sense.

Most of us are on fixed incomes so this would hurt a lot of people.

Everything keeps going up and now they want our taxes to go up. It’s not fair to people who own property.

Jean Workheiser

Clovis

Not all protection has to be gun

During all my years as a classroom public school teacher, I kept my old heavy steel “hot shoe” in a file cabinet close to the door.

This “shoe” was worn over my left boot and was my “skid shoe” while racing my flat track motorcycles. In flat track, 90 percent of the time, your left foot was on the ground as you power slid the motorcycle sideways to the left.

Why did I keep this at school? Knowing of possible harm entering the hallway, I had this heavy, blunt object to use as a weapon should protection be needed.

I always left my classroom door locked, but open, and I could quickly shut it if needed.

One time, there was a “situation,” so I quickly shut the door, asked the kids to move quietly to one side of the room and sit on the floor.

I stood by the door, “armed” with my steel shoe, ready to hit an intruder.

Effective as a gun? Possibly. It would have been difficult to miss my target and no stray shots could hit the innocent.

Not all protection has to be a gun, however a “club” would only be effective for close-up confrontation. From distance, nothing would top a gun.

Keith Ingram

Clovis