Dear Editor:
I will be voting no on the half-cent sales tax. The main reasons are: 1. The passage of the Wayfair tax, 2. The passage of the new gasoline tax. 3. The Biden administration's insane policies that are driving up prices. 4. The poor choices the city has chosen to use the money for.
Five solar-powered charging stations at $25,000 per station placed in the parks was a complete waste of taxpayer money. Did they not know that one can buy a solar charging kit for cellphones from Walmart for $39.60? For the price of one of these charging stations, Jefferson City could have bought over 631 from Walmart and attached them to park benches all over the city. Although that sounds insane, my point is there are lots of cheaper options. Just like the crazy $800 garbage cans for downtown many years ago. I'd rather the city had spent the $100,000 on storm sewers or buy the police body cameras. With the city's amphitheater, $375,000 is being paid by a local hospital, yet it is going to cost us taxpayers over $900,000, according to one of the charts in the FY22 budget. For nearly a million dollars a year, that place needs to be in use every single day and despite me paying for it out of my taxes, it is like so many other things in Jefferson City, I will get no use from.
I bet the Jefferson City police and fire departments would have been thrilled to get an extra $900,000 a year.
So I am voting no on the tax.