Your Opinion: Misrepresentations, false statements addressed

Dear Editor:

The features that ran in the Sunday papers the past few weeks regarding the Transformation sales tax have been very interesting and well done. Let me preface by saying that I participated in one of the action teams and I am in favor of the tax proposal for a host of different reasons with the most important being the opportunities that will be created by the new projects. I do respect the opinions of the opponents but I disagree with most of their arguments especially when they have become negative and counterproductive.

There are two things in particular that I would like to point out from the Jan. 22 article that I feel are either false or misrepresented. The first are the multiple statements that the local sales tax, if this passes, would be "roughly 9 percent." That is totally an exaggeration. The current sales tax in Jefferson City, not including areas where there is a Transportation Development District (TDD), is 7.725 percent. This would raise to 8.225 percent if the Transformation Plan passes.

I think this point needs to be clearly stated and not exaggerated. The second statement mentioned by the opponents is that the 400-plus people that participated with the action teams are "out of touch" with the rest of Jefferson City. I believe the complete opposite is true. My experience with the team that I was on is that the people participating cared a lot about our community and want to see it succeed. They came from all walks of life. That showed me that these people are very much in touch with the community.

The big thing I have learned from this whole process is that if we want our community to grow in the right direction we have to invest in ourselves and not rely on someone else or some other entity to do it for us. It's more than just investing our money through this current sales tax proposal on the ballot. It's about investing our time and talent as well.

I'd encourage people to vote yes Feb. 7 but regardless of the outcome I'd encourage people to have a positive outlook for our community and invest your ideas and energy into making our community better.

Video Extra
videothumbnailimageTEXT