It was with interest that I listened to Councilman Denis Anderson, and Mayor Les Heitke comment on Chamber President Ken Warner's commentary (in the Dec. 1 Tribune) at the end of the Dec. 3 council meeting.
Anderson's comments were about the lack of not disclosing two points that he felt made the commentary misleading to the public -- not disclosing that the funds have been dedicated to flooding and the Grass Lake project and that it was in fact sunset.
Anderson is also misleading the public thusly: Yes, the funds have been verbally dedicated to the two projects. In my mind dedicated means permanent. This is not, as every two years it can be redirected at the pleasure of the council at that time, which may have different thoughts of what to do with these monies.
As to the sunset, that also is not true, because there may be new and different projects added by the then-present council to keep the fee going. A true sunset is like the optional sales tax, it ends when the funds are collected that were voted on. Warner's comments were only based on what the mayor said.
The mayor pretty much espoused the same issues, plus touting how we have the lowest levy compared to 23 cities. This can be construed two ways: One, we are last because we don't raise enough money to take care of the infrastructure that we need to take care of our streets, flooding, quiet zones. Or you can say we are first because we have such a low tax levy that as he says encourages people to move, live, and do business in Willmar, but drive on bad streets, have flooding problems and have noisy rail crossings. However, maybe they can find another business or company to add a fee to -- say all the gas pumps in Willmar, maybe $3 per pump per month. This is meant to be a joke, or is it?
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Lastly, have your wages gone up 14.5 percent like the city's local government aid has since 2003?
John L. Sullivan
Willmar
