Observe that the tax equity

issue is symptomatic of the broader issue of county/city relations, which

could be more harmonious than now seems to be the case.

The answer that would best

shut up those who argue they don't get their fair share of county taxes

would be to consolidate all the city governments and the county government

into one, as was done in the city/counties of Columbus/Muscogee, Athens/Clarke

and Augusta/Richmond. Does any of the candidates favor that for Fayette

County? Why not?

How about the local sales tax,

or LOST? Is there any candidate who understands and acknowledges that

citizens of the unincorporated area currently receive only 47.5 percent

of what they pay in local option sales tax, and that they give the extra

52.5 percent to their fellow citizens who live in the cities of Fayette

County? When a new percentage split between the county and the cities

comes up for decision in 2002, what is each candidate prepared to do?

Would any candidate agree to discontinue the 1-percent local sales tax

after 2002?

How about saddling the county

taxpayers with a SPLOST? We already have one commissioner who loves SPLOST.

Does any of the candidates love it, too? (It doesn't matter what it's

for. Any excuse is good enough to have a SPLOST when you love taxes.)

County governments not only

collect money, which leads to tax issues, they also spend it. Not only

are there day-to-day spending issues that arise, like whether to make

a grant for a park or facility for one group of citizens or another, but

there are long-term issues, like developing and extending water and sewer

systems, developing new roads and parks, etc. There are also budgets to

approve, and different people have different spending priorities. What

are our candidates' priorities? When would they say No, and when would

they say Yes? Since rumors now circulate that our four current commissioners

have split into factions of two each, that fifth vote on the commission

could be crucial.

We, in Fayette County, are

blessed in two respects. (1) We do have an intelligent and educated population.

(2) We have a newspaper, The Citizen, whose editor is possibly the most

democratic in the whole country in allowing local citizens to bring up

and discuss issues.

Our county commission candidates

are at fault when they fail to avail themselves of the wonderful opportunity

afforded them to communicate with the electorate. Instead, they treat

us as dummies, preferring to litter the county landscape with countless

yard signs whose main characteristics are that they are ugly, they are

unhelpful, they waste their supporters' money, and they stay long after

the election is over.

It's unfortunate that elections

are seen as being won by one candidate or another, because the real winner

should always be the people. We should make an effort to flush out the

stealth candidates who try to sneak into public office without telling

us anything. We don't have to examine candidates for 40 different positions

this time, just five candidates for the one position. Let's put their

feet to the fire and make them tell us, publicly and not privately so

they cannot equivocate, what kind of commissioner they'd make.

Unless at least one candidate

is willing to treat the public with respect, our staying home on June

19 ought to be interpreted as a mark of our contempt for a process that

is a mere travesty of what a democratic government ought to be all about.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayetteville

[email protected]