Nelson Peters Dissembles On County Council Wheel Tax Request

Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 6/5/08 @ 12:13 pm - Filed Under 2008 Local Elections, City Council

Last night county commissioner Nelson Peters was on Tom Smith’s city council call-in show. At the beginning of the show they discussed the need to find a way to pay for bridge maintenance. As readers might remember the county council has requested that the municipalities funnel all money from a future increase in the wheel tax back to the county to pay for bridge maintenance - this seems to be a reasonable request. However, they have also requested that the individual municipalities pass resolutions asking them to raise the tax in the first place.

Considering the county council is the sole authority for raising that tax there is absolutely no doubt that the request is merely one for political cover. Now none of this is even debatable as councilman Mitch Harper, during a city council meeting, specifically asked county council woman Paula Hughes if they wanted an agreement to funnel the money back to the council or a resolution to request the tax increase in the first place. Her answer was “Both” (you can watch the video in the post I linked above).

So last night commissioner Peters said the idea that the county council is looking for political cover is a “fallacy”. I cannot believe he would even try such a thing considering Paula Hughes’ statement came during a public city council meeting and I have video posted on this blog of her saying it. I hope that what Peters meant to say was that the more important of the two requests was the funneling of money back to the county. Watch Peters’ comments for yourself…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTfOlbGFsrc