Totally unnecessary goodies

Dear Editor,

I am always interested in reading Dick Trail's column, unafraid to speak his mind and full of common sense. His July 19, 2022 column in the McCook Gazette, "Sales tax is a'comin'" particularly spoke to me. I am a fairly new McCook resident, so my opinion probably carries little weight, but I agree with Dick Trail on the subject of sales tax.

My spouse and I are so happy to be a part of the McCook community—we find the people so respectful, helpful, and welcoming. We have found, however, this community and state is an expensive place to live—i.e., our property tax bill this last December had us paying nearly double of what we were paying in the state we moved from !! Not only a very big property tax, but the State of Nebraska wanted a big chunk in income tax, and we are paying hefty sales tax, too.

Shortly after moving here, the City Council in April 2022 raised water rates by 6% and sewer rates by 3% (after raising sewer and water rates the year before). Now the City Council is wanting $6 million+ for a new city swimming pool and upping city sales tax to finance this. City Council is also wanting $16 million for ballparks and wanting city sales tax also to pay for the project. How can the City Council justify asking for $22 million+ to pay for facilities that are used from, what, April through August, by a very small percentage of the McCook population? The city already has the benefit of the YMCA indoor pool and I do see existing ballparks around town. I cannot be the only McCook resident who will never use the city outdoor pool or proposed ballparks, yet I will be obligated to finance these projects through higher city sales tax.

Most of us are already stretched to survive in today's inflation which is expected to last for quite some time, per the financial experts, then followed by recession. One can say that everyone can afford "the little bit" of this sales tax increase, but can everyone? Those of us on fixed incomes, new young families, single people—we all feel the pinch when going to the gas station, supermarket, and all other retail and wholesale stores, ordering services, etc. Individuals/families cannot keep spending when they've blown through their weekly paycheck. Because government at any level has the power to tax, they continue to spend more and more because there will be plenty more tax dollars next month, next year, for them to spend. So, this won't be the end of the Council's desire to raise fees or taxes.

City Council's purpose is to do a decent job of running basic services for McCook residents—fix the rough streets, timely snow removal, fix street signs that are unreadable, fix broken, sunken sections of sidewalks, provide affordable water/sewer/trash, provide police and fire fighting service, take care of the city's nursing home, up the game on code enforcement—which McCook really needs.

This is a poor time to ask McCook residents to pay increased city sales tax for $22 million of totally unnecessary goodies. Mr. Trail is also correct that once tax rates are increased, they rarely go down. Personally, I am already looking at a contingency plan of doing my shopping in another town or county when we travel around.

As Mr. Trail says, that's how I see it.

Donna Holle

McCook, Neb.