Nelson Peters Strikes Back
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 7/10/08 @ 10:47 pm - Filed Under 2008 Local Elections, Featured
Commissioner Nelson Peters angrily responded to mayor Henry’s letter rejecting the county’s bridge proposal calling it “Bush League”. I will agree with Peters on this sole point - the city should’ve given the letter to the county before it released it to the media. The city had to know that if they mailed it on Wednesday the commissioners wouldn’t get it until Thursday afternoon but the media release went out Thursday morning.
And why the heck are they mailing it in the first place? The commissioners’ office is located on the 2nd floor of the city-county building. Could they not have walked it down to them? Having said that, the rest of Peters’ response was over the top:
This set intergovernmental cooperation back 15 years.
15 years? A letter? Give me a break.
Peters cannot avoid the truth and the truth is that it is the county’s own shortsightedness that has put them in the position they are in. They eliminated the fund that paid for bridge maintenance - what did they think would happen? Now they are asking everyone else to help bail them out but everybody else has their own set of problems. Peters has publicly suggested that there’s plenty of fat to cut in the city budget but when it comes to the county’s finances he simply wants to raise taxes.
That’s the difference between the city and county right now - Henry and the city council are looking to cut spending while Peters and the county council are looking for ways to raise taxes. The county’s fiscal irresponsibility is coming back to haunt them and trying to strong arm other local government entities isn’t going to solve that problem…
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5 Responses to “Nelson Peters Strikes Back”
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Wow. What a great PIO department Henry has working for him. They are making him look better everyday…to Republicans for dinner, that is..
I entirely agree with everything Mayor Henry wrote in the letter; however, it was inept to send it to the media first.
There is just no excuse for that.
Maybe they need to hire even more poeple to work in the PIO Department (NOT).
Mike Sylvester
Nothing is by accident in the political world.
Nelson Peters calling it “bush league” is maybe correct. Then again the County dumping the bridge fund a few years ago is “major leauge”! Not doing anything about it for the last three four years falls under “bush league”! Asking the other local units to set up higher taxes to fix a county problem is “bush league”!
Why hasn’t the County asked the State if they could put the tax back into effect? If not, can the our state elected officials pass a law allowing the county to bring back just the bridge tax back?
At a meeting of the Huntington County chapter of Mensa the other day, my friend Keith Cumtwa observed, “Bush league is as bush league does, but those bridges still need to be maintained by somebody.”
The STATE made it law.
The COUNTY should FOLLOW the law.
The CITY cannot enforce the LAWS it already has.
Can’t get ANY easier.
B.G.