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Yet, the supervisors stui ao lot want to live up to the nandate which they have jeen given. They say that here is no room in the ludget for even these small terns, and they holler “tax ncrease,” and everyone freezes. However, the ninimum tax increase of 10 :ents per hundred would ncrease the county’s income >y $14,000, more than :nough to fund the Sheriffs requests for not one year but jver four years. (This could actually be accomplished by carrying the excess over, and removing the 10 cents increase in the remaining yearsi) Moreover, this 10 cent addition to the tax rate would represent an increase of less than 2‘/a per cent. Certainly this could only represent great responsibility on the part of the supervisors when one considers both the increases in other areas of our lives, and the low level of taxation which we enjoy here. It is plain that the supervisors are crying “wolf’ when there is no wolf if they persist in claiming that we cannot afford to fond the Sheriffs requests. It has been said that we have a very inexpensive government in our county, as counties go, and that appears to be true. But government that is too cheap is simply not adequate.
Third, we must face the very reasonable nature of the Sheriffs requests. By the Sheriffs own testimony to the supervisors, the Sheriffs Department is presently carrying almost its foil load without the additional help£ A fact that is underscored by the general lack of complaints which the supervisors spoke of. This does not mean that the additional help is not needed. Quite the contrary. It means that the Sheriff and his Department are doing their very best, above and beyond the call of duty, and are working many hours beyond what we are paying them for. This puts the citizens of this county in the position of being lousy employers, a position that most of us cannot relish nor long tolerate. And it makes me wonder how long it can be held up. How long before they become disheartened at the lack of support and are no longer able to maintain their present level of competence. no lonaer able to
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