Open letter to the City Council:
I bought and read the 1/1/2020 newspaper today.
It said that the Pea Ridge city budget for 010 was $3,824,429. It also said that the Pea Ridge city budget for 2020 is $9,368,990. That is an increase of $5,544,561 in just 10 years. That is a 145% increase in spending.
According to the paper, it said that we had 19 new businesses move into Pea Ridge in 2019. That technically means that we should have 19 new sources of additional revenue.
The school is being paid for by the property-owning taxpayers so that is not a drain on the city.
The new sewer plant is being paid for by the residence (sic) paying their water and sewer bills so that is not a drain on the city.
The fire department is paid for by the residence (sic) paying their fire dues so that is not a drain on the city.
I was told that there are now 17 police on the Pea Ridge payroll. They all have their clothing allowances along with the guns, belts, bullets and batons as well as each of them having their own personal police cars to drive. Each of them probably has a city debit card to buy gas for those cars and several of them get to drive those cars home each day. That there is the drain on the city.
We have all these police on the first but still no one answers the phone when we call. This is where we say, "humb" (sic).
I read where you were thinking about asking the Pea Ridge taxpayers for a 1% tax increase in the new future. I just wanted you to know that I will be in opposition to the idea. I realize that you don't really care what I think about it, but it seems that this is an extravagant amount of money that is being funneled through the city budget.
How many other small towns have this much revenue growth and they say they they still need more money. Maybe you might want to hire a financial adviser to check your bottom line and see where you can cut all of the wasteful spending instead of increasing the spending.
We have the city wide clean up, two times a year. We also have the brush debris drop off. I commend you for providing these two things for all of the residence (sic). The issue is that we are always told that it is too expensive. I bet that it is a lot less expensive than that stupid splash pad that very few people use. By the way, who has to pay for the water and sewer on that thing? What else do you waste the city budget on?
Have you ever looked at the budget from this perspective before?
Sincerely,
Boyd B. McNiel
Pea Ridge, Ark.
Editorial on 01/15/2020