Imagine if you were the owner

of one of these properties and the mayor suggested you increase your own

taxes. Beyond the insult is the absurdity and complete lack of business

acumen.

The mayor suggested in his

State of the City speech that the failure of the CID was the combined

fault of state Representative Kathy Cox and Councilwoman Annie McMenamin.

If so, then I say, "Thank You, ladies." Thank you both for having

the sense to check with the owners of the properties and doing your homework.

Thank you both for stopping a tax that would be passed from property owner

to business owner to us, the consumers. Thank you both for avoiding the

embarrassment had the Legislature approved this program and then the property

owners involved subsequently opposed it.

A CID is a program that is

intended to restore life to a dead or dying area. It is the wrong program

for a thriving commercial area in a highly desirable community. Its failure,

if it should be called that, lies at the feet of the man who failed to

do his homework.

Gary Rower

Peachtree City

[Rower ran against Brown

in last fall's election.]