The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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February 13, 2013

Letter: Voters need to wake up

Enid News and Eagle

ENID, Okla. — The citizens of Enid will soon be voting on a new sales tax and property tax increase.

City hall wants to spend another $50 million dollars on new and existing city parks.

However, only a fraction will be used for the parks. The rest is for other stuff we don’t need as well. The city is challenged now to keep our current parks clean and safe. How could they handle additional parks?

What they are really saying is once a tax is in place, it very rarely goes away. It is justified and continued forever. No thought is given to using our present funds more wisely, only to taxing the citizens more. Will it ever end? Not if we vote to tax ourselves more. Wages and incomes are not increasing, so this money would be coming from my gas and grocery money.

If we vote to give them more money, they will squander it. The Expo Center hasn’t worked out as advertised. I doubt the Renaissance Project will live up to the hype, either. Sales taxes and property taxes will increase again.

If the tax is approved, it will make Enid’s sales tax rate 8.85 percent. Look at these comparisons. We will be among the highest rate in Oklahoma and the entire country.

Oklahoma City, 8.375 percent; Tulsa, 8.517 percent; Edmond, 7.75 percent; Midwest City, 7.8 percent; Norman, 8.25 percent; Nichols Hills, 8.5 percent; Dallas, Texas, 8.25 percent; New York City, 8.875 percent; San Francisco, 8.75 percent.

That is a distinction Enid doesn’t want. That’s a fact that will not grow any kind of economic development or “tourism” in Enid.

We are, in fact, encouraging our citizens and visitors to shop elsewhere. There’s enough of that going on already!

Harlan J. Long

Enid

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