Dear Taxpayers of Kershaw County:

At Tuesday night’s Kershaw County Council meeting, it seemed as though council purposely pitted “fireman against citizen.” No one in the “standing room only” crowd was against our fire service; and to believe that anyone is against a well-funded and maintained fire service would only be foolish. Chairman Julian Burns is responsible and should be ashamed for setting that tone. Again, nobody in that room was attacking our fire service, only the mechanism by which it is funded.

If they need an additional $1.7 million per year to be properly funded, then I think they should have it, but not in additional fees and/or taxes. Folks I have said this over and over again -- the money is already in the budget. We are spending $750,000 per year on economic development with little or nothing to show for it, and that’s not including the $17.2 million economic development bond that we are saddled with, along with all the empty spec buildings we have to maintain. We were told Tuesday night that in two years, if nothing is done, this county will not have a fire service, so when will this council start making budget cuts?

Council is telling us that they need to raise fees and taxes for our fire service while they dump an additional 400,000 into the river “Swamp Park: and $200,000 for a ridiculous splash pad. If we are in such a crisis with our fire service, why are we putting any money into any parks? Folks, those are the high-dollar ticket items that we could be cutting, but there are many lesser ones. This county council gives away tens of thousands of dollars every year to multiple organizations that should be able to stand on their own two feet through private donations. These people are taxing us to death and when will enough be enough? They are killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Thank you Jimmy Jones and Al Bozard for listening to the citizens of Kershaw County and voting no.

Vic Dabney, Camden