LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Some different ‘math’
Dear editor,
I read Judge Barkemeyer’s column, in which he described the distribution of property tax dollars against various county demands. As a person with analytical tendencies, I appreciate the clinical slicing of the tax dollar pie that he demonstrated, however as a county resident, his comments are making it difficult for me to hold down my piece of the pie.
Judge Barkemeyer stated that $115 is all that is left out of my tax dollars to fix the county road where I live. I have no information to contradict this figure, so I will accept it as truth.
Sadly, this does nothing to improve the rub-board county road I travel to and from work each day.
Nor does it help with the drainage issue in front of our property. Apparently, all of the rain in a three mile stretch of road drains to the area in front of our cattle guard.
We also have the option to either mow the county’s right of way ourselves or to allow the grass to grow as high as an elephant’s eye. We have opted to contribute our labor in this issue to the county, along with our tax dollars, so that we can more easily see oncoming cars and ATV’s, as well as cows, deer and pigs in the road.
As I drive around the county, I see large piles of road material, waiting to be used. I also see heavy equipment at the ready, lacking only an operator to make our county roads more safe and navigable.
The county road I live on is gravel and dirt, meaning that the stock-piled road materials will not be used where I live. So now, all we need is an operator to bring the heavy equipment to the road in front of my property so that the county can deliver $115 worth of labor for which, according to Judge Barkemeyer, I have already paid.
If we assume $28 per hour to pay the operator his hourly rate, plus cover his benefits, my analytical tendencies tell me that I am owed four hours of direct labor in front of my property.
This would leave $3, which can go into the county’s surplus. Of course, if the operators are making less than $28 per hour, with benefits, the county can add more money to their surplus, as I am only requiring four hours of labor.
Finally, since there are five taxpaying families which access their property over the cattle guard at the front of the property, the county is really getting a bargain.
They can improve a small stretch of road for $115, when they have been paid $575 to do it.
When the operator and the heavy equipment get here, I will show them the stretch of road where I want my $115 allotment applied. All I need to know is…
When will they be here?
Robert Johnson
1669 CR 327
Rockdale